Tsunami warning system to be set up by September 2007

Chennai, Nov 7 (UNI) Work on setting up a tsunami warning system along the Indian coast would be completed by September, 2007, according to a senior official.

The work was progressing as per schedule and it was likely to be completed by September 2007, National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) Chairman and Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, P S Goel said.

Talking to newspersons at the NIOT Campus at the suburban Pallikkaranai here, he said about 10 to 12 Ocean bottom pressure recorders, including eight near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, would be installed to make the system more reliable and avoid false warnings.

The remaining two to four recorders would be installed around the Makaran coast in the Arabian sea.

Dr Goel said tide-gauges, including two in Andamans, and mathematical modelling would also be put in place to identify the locations to be affected during tsunami.

Stating that a host of agencies and departments were involved in the project execution works, he said the cyclone warning centres of the Indian Metereological department, and the services of media and mobile phone operators would be utilised for issuing tsunami warning bulletins.

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