Paradip (Orissa), Nov 9 - The Indian Navy would soon deploy fast attack crafts to protect the eastern coast to thwart attacks like last year's terror strike on Mumbai where the terrorists landed on the city's shoreline and unleashed mayhem, a senior navy official said.

"The eastern coast can be as vulnerable as any other part of the Indian coast. You can't afford to leave one part of the coast unguarded especially after the Mumbai attack. We are giving equal importance to eastern coast as the western coast and won't leave any part of the coast unattended," Rear Admiral P. Murugesan, the flag officer commanding of the Indian Navy's Eastern Fleet, told visiting journalists Sunday on board INS Jalashwa off this port city in Orissa.

"The Indian Navy will deploy some swift-moving fast attack craft to thwart such attacks in the western coasts too. These crafts are not big ships, but they will be of medium and small sizes so that they can reach a place with a minimum time lag," Murugesan said.

The navy has already commissioned four to six such vessels in the last six months and more are being built in shipyards on a "fast track" basis", he said. These ships would be positioned at different places in the eastern coast "starting from Kameswaram to Haldia", the officer said.

Apart from the navy, the coast guard is also commissioning such crafts to counter possible infiltrators along the Indian coast, he added.

INS Jalashwa is a an amphibious assault ship that is capable of carrying and transporting 1,000 combat troops, tanks, artillery and vehicles to support operations ashore. It is equipped with Landing Craft Mechanized LCM-8. It is also capable of leading humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions. (IANS)