Almost three years after tsunami wrecked havoc in Asia including vast swaths of Indian eastern coast, the nation finally has its own tsunami warning centre, which can possibly save thousands of lives by issuing timely alerts in case of any future tsunami. 

On completion, the Rs 125 crore system will be fed by a network of 12 bottom pressure recorders placed on the beds of the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea and a network of 50 tidal gauges located along both the coasts.
The data will be relayed to the national tsunami warning station at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) here. 

At the moment, the warning system inaugurated by the union science minister Kapil Sibal and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Raja Sekhar Reddy on Monday, is connected to six bottom pressure recorders — four in the Bay of Bengal and two in the Arabian Sea — and 30 tidal gauges. The rest will be added to the system in the next five months in the same order.

All data will be transmitted to the warning centre which will process it using custom-built software created by the Tata Consultancy Services and INCOIS. 

The information would subsequently be passed on to the Union Home Ministry, which will issue the warnings. The entire process would take about 13 minutes, said INCOIS director Shailesh Naik. 

“I am gifting the most modern tsunami warning centre to the nation,” said Mr Sibal. 

State emergency operation centres, designated officials and neighbouring countries will also receive the Indian advisory. 

Incidentally, the efficiency of the end-to-end system was successfully proved during the 8.4 magnitude undersea earthquake close to the Indonesian border on September 12, 2007. 

It took five years to build the Pacific system,  whereas the Indian system was ready in just three years.
“This is the most modern system and is a multi-hazard system that can also take care of storm surges and typhoons,” said Dr Peter Koltermann, in charge of  tsunami issues in the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

An ideal tsunami warning system requires data from all the three sources because relying on only seismic signals can be erroneous.

Only a small proportion of strong earthquakes produce a tsunami. A warning system based solely on seismic data is prone to generate  false alarms. 

How IT Works

* System to be fed by  networks of bottom pressure recorders and  50 tidal gauges 
* Data to be relayed to  national tsunami warning station
* Info to be subsequently passed on to the Union home ministry
* State emergency operation centres, designated officials and neighbouring countries to also receive the Indian advisory