India fine-tunes tsunami warning system
The great Indian Ocean tsunami occurred on December 26, 2004 and within a year the Government approved the setting up of an early warning system after detailed brainstorming sessions with experts in the field both within and outside the country. Set up at a cost of Rs. 150 crore, the system became operational on October 15, 2007. Initially, it had the capability to issue a warning within 20 minutes. It has since then been fine tuned and first warning is now available within 10 minutes.
The Indian Tsunami Early Warning System [ITEWS] comprises of a real-time network of seismic stations, tsunami buoys and tide gauges. These are linked to a state-of-art tsunami centre – Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre [ITEWC], where the data are analysed using high power computational systems. Advisories are issued automatically to the various stakeholders beginning from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the National Disaster Management Authority to State and district level disaster management centres for necessary follow-up action.
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ITEWC has been organizing national & international workshops, trainings and seminars to create awareness about tsunamis in general public, school children and disaster management community. To test the communications links with disaster management authorities, the centre conducts Communications test every 6 months.
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