India will host conference on tsunami early warning system

An international conference in India on January 21, will bring together experts from across the world to help build a tsunami early warning system, V S Ramamurthy, secretary, Department of Science and Technology, said here on Sunday.

India's minister for science, technology and ocean development, Kapil Sibal, had said recently that the Centre would spend some Rs 125 crore on such a system.

India will take a lead in building the system and the meet in Delhi will address issues related to its management, in collaboration with other countries in the region, Ramamurthy said.

Participants, included experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, Japan, Canada, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

There were three components "" earthquake detection, tsunami detection and warning dissemination "" required for early warning. The country already has a good earthquake monitoring system in place because of the experiences of the past, and world-class expertise on satellite-based communication too was available, from the Indian Space Research Organisation, he said.

Some of the equipment had to be deployed in the middle of the ocean on the surface as well as at various depths of the sea. They were not easy to maintain, operate and communicate with.

"But now this tragedy has taken place we have talked to people who have experience of handling tsunamis and we are trying to put in place a system which is still affordable," he said.

Ramamurthy was here to deliver the annual Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Special Lecture at the Central Power Research Institute. The lecture was organised on CPRI's Institute Day.

India had decided against an early warning system in the past because tsunamis were not known to occur in this part of the world, and because of the cost involved, he said.