NEW DELHI: India is putting in place a superior monitoring system to track ships plying near its coast. Named the national automatic identification system (AIS), the network is at a conceptual stage and meant to overcome the shortcomings of the current system to sift merchant and passenger ships from rogue vessels which might approach the coast, said official sources.

"We are thinking of establishing a network of 85 base stations to track ships 40 to 50 nautical miles from the coast. This would lead to a significant increase in maritime domain awareness (MDA)," they said.

The transmission of information will be through VSAT (satellite dishes) links instead of very ultra high frequency transmission used by the present INSPIRES (Indian ship position reporting system) that has been functional for the past 10 years.

It suffers from short line of sight and range limitations.

New system

Under the new system, ships will have to automatically broadcast information every two to 10 seconds about their identification number, navigation status, speed, rate of turn, position and heading course.

Every six minutes, they will have to broadcast their call sign, name and type. In future, this will be replaced by a long-range identification and tracking (LRIT) system that would provide global coverage through Inmarsat. Position data would be transmitted through regional collaboration centres set up all round the world. New regulations for this system are likely to be announced in January 2008.

Magnitude of task

Giving an idea about the magnitude of the task, the sources pointed out that at 68.56 million sq. km, the Indian Ocean occupies 20 per cent of the earth's surface. India is at the junction of the world's busiest oil and trade shipping routes.

The area plays host to one lakh ships, of which 55,000 pass through the Malacca Straits. India's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is expected to increase to 2.54 million sq. km. once the Continental Shelf is defined. "The aim of MDA is to get a complete picture of region of interest," said the sources.

Objectives

The objectives are to increase information sharing between operational centres of various security forces and agencies and get a complete global picture in order to curb terrorism and piracy, facilitate search and rescue operations and track illegal carriage of goods. In addition to INSPIRES, India also uses VESCA (vessels calling at ports) and INDSAR (Indian Search and Rescue), a voluntary arrangement where ships give their details so that the Coast Guard and the Navy are in position to extend immediate help in cases of distress.

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