Tamil Nadu - Cuddalore   

Satellite-linked safety gadgets given to fishermen

— Photo: C. Venkatachalapathy

Safety first: The distress alert transmitter equipment being handed over to fishermen on Wednesday in Cuddalore.

CUDDALORE: The Coast Guard is equipping fishermen with satellite-linked safety gadget called “distress alert transmitter” that will emit signals at the time of emergency at sea to facilitate speedy rescue.

The light-weight device developed by the Space Application Centre/ISRO and manufactured by the VXL Technologies Ltd, Faridabad (Haryana) can be fixed to the deep-sea fishing vessels.

Few of these devices are being given to selective fishermen on an experimental basis, according to Assistant Commandant Vinodh K.Basavala of the Coast Guard, Puducherry.

On Wednesday, Mr Basavala handed over five such transmitters to Assistant Director of Fisheries Department (Cuddalore) V.Tamilmani (at the latter’s office in Cuddalore Old Town) who in turn passed these on to the fishermen.

Mr Basavala told The Hindu that a limited version of 1,000 such transmitters had been procured and of which 850 would be given away to the fishermen across the country.

The remaining 150 units would be kept as a buffer, meant either for replacement or for other exigencies. Later, depending upon the demand the instrument would be sold at a reasonable price of about Rs 14,000 apiece.

The battery-operated equipment has four buttons to signify various types of emergencies such as fire, sinking, man over board and medical problem.

It also has an inbuilt Global Positioning System (GPS) that carries the message to the satellite INSAT-3C. Each unit had been given a unique serial number.

When the fishermen press the relevant button the device would glow and start sending signals to the satellite. The signals would be picked up by the ground based radar of the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Chennai and the computerised data would be displayed about the exact location of the boat in distress and the kind of danger it faced. Soon, the vessels in the vicinity, including that of the Coast Guard, the Navy and the merchant navy, would be alerted.

Mr Basavala further said the Coast Guard and the Fisheries Department were jointly organising awareness camps in the coastal areas about the significance of the transmitter.

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