Navy and the Coast Guard are carrying out operations simulating 26/11-type attacks to prepare themselves to tackle such incidents in future and a similar drill is being planned in Mumbai around the date the militants struck last year.

The focus of the operations, being conducted since last month, is to cut down on the response time and strengthen the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for all the security agencies in times of such attacks, Defence Ministry sources said here.

During such operations, they said, combined troops of Navy, Coast Guard and other local security forces divide themselves into two teams. A small team of trained commandos dresses up the way Ajmal Kasab and his accomplices were attired and hires a boat without letting the other team know about it.

This small team, sources said, tries to attack a vital shore-based installation in a particular state, same way the terrorists did during last year's attacks. At first, sources said, the effort is made by the security agencies to arrest the 'hijacked' vessel on basis of information received from patrol boats or from the fishermen.

If the attacking team manages to escapes and reaches the shore, they added, it tries to capture a vital building such as a nuclear installation, hotel or a government office and the other forces try to 'eliminate' them in shortest time possible.

"The whole effort helps us to analyse the situation better and allows us to improve our response in such a scenario," a source said.

On the western coast, the exercise has already taken place in states such as Gujarat, Kerala and Goa and will be held in Maharashtra around the same time the Mumbai attacks took place last year, the sources said.

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