46 coastal sites to be monitored from November

India will deploy an indigenously built coastal surveillance system in 46 strategic western and eastern locations in the country from this November to check intrusions from sea and counter such threats, officials said on Tuesday.

Being developed by the Bengaluru-based defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd, the system includes radars and electro-optic and meteorological sensors and would be mounted on light- houses or towers at these locations, company officials said.

"It will give complete operational picture of the sea up to 20 km deep into the sea. So, all targets can be brought into a screen and they can be seen from regional centres," BEL's Director (R&D), I V Sarma said.

"We will start deploying the stations (at identified locations) by November or so," he added.

BEL's Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Kumar Datt said the system has already been demonstrated at two locations and the trial phase had been completed.

The company is now awaiting an order -- valued at more than Rs 500 crore -- from the Indian Coast Guard, which would maintain the stations with BEL's technical support.

Under the strategically important project, officials said 46 locations have been identified along the western and eastern coasts where stations would be be set up.

The round-the-clock system would enable authorities to collect "radar and visual output".

"The concept is to look into the sea, and identify intrusion attempts," Datt said.

BEL sources said a centre would be set up in New Delhi which would get information gathered by the surveillance system, while there would also be some regional centres.

The entire software for the coastal surveillance system has been developed by BEL's central research laboratory located in Ghaziabad.

BEL officials said the company is expected to complete the process of installing the surveillances system by June next year, after which the second phase would begin to cover "each inch" of the coast.

So, within three years, India is expected to deploy the system along the entire coast.

Datt said BEL was in the process of deploying an intelligent CCTV surveillance system in the Parliament under a Rs 30-crore order.

BEL officials said this project involved integration of over 400 cameras on a IP platform with an integrated command and control centre.