Seismic monitoring network on the anvil

The Indian Meteorological Department is setting up a 17-station Real Time Seismic Monitoring Network as part of the Early Warning System for tsunami and storm surges in the Indian Ocean, government informed the Lok Sabha on Friday.

Each station will be equipped with seismic and Global Positioning System sensors with facility to transmit data through satellite to a central receiving station at IMD, Delhi and Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services that is under the Department of Ocean Development for real-time processing and interpretation, Minister of  State for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said in a written reply.

An amount of Rs 12 crore has been earmarked for the project, he said, adding that it is expected that the equipments will be received by March, next year, and installed  shortly thereafter.

The government has also set up an Earthquake Risk Evaluation Centre in Delhi as an independent wing of IMD, Sibal said, adding that the principle mandate of EREC is to collate and integrate various data sets and to prepare the site-specific earthquake-risk maps.

Sibal informed the Lok Sabha that there was a proposal to set up another research station in Antartica but added that it was not possible at this stage to give a time-frame for setting it up.

He said the government also proposed to acquire by September, 2007, a state-of-art research vessel for ocean research, which will be utilised for various technology demonstrations programmes like deep-sea mining, demonstration of remotely-operated vehicle, autonomous underwater vehicle and oceanographic surveys.

The revised  estimated cost of the acquisition of the vessel is Rs 230.72 crore.