You now have to pay hefty fine, face possible jail time for venturing far into the sea

Kolkata: The Digha Sankarpur Development Authority (DSDA) is taking a slew of measures to prevent tourists from venturing beyond a certain point in the sea in Digha, Mandarmani and Sankarpur, for the sake of their safety.

The decision of DSDA comes in the wake of some deaths in recent times at these popular tourist destinations, due to people having ventured far into the sea.

There was a spell of hot sultry weather for nearly a week before last Wednesday and during that time, a number of people had flocked to these beach destinations to seek relief from the terrible heat.

"Civic police and civil defence personnel have been deployed at the sea beaches. But some people who are mostly found in drunken condition, do not pay heed to them and venture far into the sea, endangering their lives. There have been some casualties in the recent past as well," a senior DSDA official said.

The DSDA has planned to enclose a certain area in the sea, beyond which nobody will be allowed to go. There will be some yellow coloured balloons at a certain distance and police will keep a watch on these. If somebody is found going beyond them, he/she will have to pay a hefty fine or even land up in jail.

The balloons will be filled with thermocol in such a way, that it will prevent them

from sinking or deflating in

the water. The DSDA will have 45 such balloons and the

entire project cost will be Rs 15 lakh.

"We will be soon holding meeting with officials of the state Disaster Management department and police administration to finalise everything," DSDA chairman Sisir Adhikari said.

The DSDA is installing more CCTVs in the beaches and providing life jackets to the disaster management team, which is designated to carry out rescue operations.