BEL to manufacture 1,000 DTH warning systems

Bangalore, Jun 16 (UNI) Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) will manufacture 1,000 Direct-To-Home (DTH) units, which acts as a warning system for natural and man-made disasters in the country, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G Madhavan Nair said today.

Addressing newspersons after delivering the valedictory speech at the three-day International Conference on Disaster Management here, he said the DTH unit, which is small in size, could be installed easily and warning signals could be beamed quickly throughout the country.

''ISRO will soon install a receiving station in here to receive signals from the Geo-Satellite for transferring signals to DTH so that Doordarshan can beam the signal even in the middle of their programme. We are also working on the 'beaming map' of a particular area in support of the warning,'' Mr Nair added.

He said as natural and man-made disasters had become very frequent, the DTH system of warning would come in handy for alerting the public and to speed up rescue operations.

To a question, he said since the DTH would be patented by the ISRO, one had to purchase from it for installation.

Mr Nair said, ''the ISRO is also working on a microwave imaging satellite that can provide minute details about floods and other natural disaster warnings. At present, we are taking images from the Canadian Space Agency,'' he added.

''During the launch of PSLV C9 recently from Sriharikota, we were worried that cyclone 'Nargis' may pass through, but with the help of satellite we came to understand that the cyclone had changed its course and we went ahead with the launch. Of course, the cyclone created havoc by claiming thousands of lives in Myanmar,'' he added.

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