Centre to install wave warning system soon

‘‘When the drought happened, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said no lives should be lost due to lack of technology. This will be the guiding philosophy while mounting the advance warning system,’’ he said.

Professor V.S. Ramamurthy, Secretary of the Department, added, ‘‘Installing such a system is not like switching on a television set. It is far more complicated. It may take anywhere between two to five years. But we will immediately get in touch with countries like the United States and Japan and see whether the module used in the Pacific Ocean rim can be replicated in the Bay of Bengal.’’

Ramamurthy said that at the outset, it was clear that the Pacific Ocean was much deeper than the Bay of Bengal. ‘‘We have got a clear signal from the Government to go ahead, and we will spend most of the department’s budget for international research in this project.’’

The department has an annual budget of around Rs 15 crore for international research. ‘‘The budget is not a problem, now that we have decided to do it,’’ Sibal added.

Asked why India had not gone in for such a system till now, the minister said, ‘‘The last time a tsunami hit the region was in 1883. After that nobody heard of tsunamis. We have ample time to get things in place. While a country like Indonesia had a warning system in place, we did not.’’