The Kerala cluster of four static coastal surveillance sensors, envisaged as part of the first phase of the network of sensors to be set up across the country, and their remote operating station (ROS) were commissioned by the Director General of Coast Guard Vice-Admiral M.P. Muralidharan at the Coast Guard District Headquarters No.4 at Fort Kochi here on Saturday.
With this, radars set up atop light houses and towers at Mount Dilli in Ezhimala, Ponnani, Vypeen and Kollam have become operational and will start relaying intelligence feeds to the ROS, helping it to carry out electronic surveillance over the coastal waters.
Vice-Admiral Muralidharan told presspersons that Kerala would get two more sensors, in Alappuzha and Azhikode, during the second phase.
Kerala cluster of radars would further be augmented when the sensors in Manappad and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and those at the Lakshadweep archipelago become operational.
The turnkey project to secure the country’s coast by monitoring vessel movements was fast-tracked after 26/11 and is being steered by the Coast Guard. Set up at a cost of Rs.601.75 crore, Bharat Electronics Ltd. is executing it with help from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd., Indian Space Research Organisation, and the Directorate of Lighthouses and Light ships. The sensor package includes surveillance gadgets, electro-optic sensors, communication equipment and meteorology equipment. The data generated by the sensors would be relayed to the ROS, Remote Operating Centre in Mumbai and the Control Centre at the Coast Guard headquarters in Delhi.
