On the second anniversary of the disaster that struck South and South East Asia, India on Tuesday said its tsunami warning system will issue alerts about the killer tidal waves within minutes of a massive earthquake hitting the sea bottom with "more accurate" warnings following soon after.
Minister for Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal claimed the Early Warning System for Tsunami and Storm Surges, being developed by his ministry, will issue "more accurate" warnings than the existing systems around the world.
Addressing the media on the second anniversary of the tsunami that killed an estimated 2.5 lakh people in a dozen countries in south and south-east Asia, he said, "We will keep our promise of giving the country a world class tsunami warning system by September 2007."
Noting that the existing tsunami warning system issued as many as 60 per cent false warnings, Sibal said the Indian system would issue a warning after analysing data from the bottom pressure recorders -- 10 such devices are being installed in the Bay of Bengal region and two in the Arabian Sea.
Seventeen automatic tide gauges have already been installed in the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean that would enable monitoring of tidal activity round-the-clock, he said.
Thirty-three more such gauges are planned to be installed along the Indian coastline to alert the residents of the coastal regions of an impending tsunami in a bid to avoid a repeat of the 2004 disaster, when several thousands of people were killed due to lack of advance warning about the killer tidal waves.
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