Automatic Identification System to guard coastline and fight intrusions

On Friday, the Union Minister of Shipping; Mr. G. K. Vasan inaugurated the National Automatic Identification System (NAIS). It is an astute strategic network whose importance could not be minimized. With multi-tasks to its credit, it will detect intrusion by ships, including shipping trawlers. It will facilitate in tracking down even fishing vessels with customized transponders. This advantage will prove a great boon to DG Shipping, the ports, the navy and the coast guard in tracking vessels, in surveillance, rescue and to navigation , ultimately. In the inaugural address, Mr. Vasan said: “There are about two lakh fishing vessels in Indian waters which are required to be equipped with such transponders.”  He also referred to the project in this connection and the approval the Ministry has given to the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL) “to provide transponders to 1,000 fishing vessels off the coast of Gujarat and Maharashtra at a cost of Rs.6 crore. In the next phase, it would be extended to other coastal states, including Tamil Nadu”. The AIS, set up at a cost of Rs.132 crore, is fundamentally a communication system using maritime VHF frequency band.  It sends and receives information regarding vessel’s identity, position, speed and course, the essential navigation details. Union Shipping Secretary Mr. P. K. Sinha pointed out that the AIS would achieve better surveillance ability by integrating itself with Long Range Identification Tracking, implemented by DG Shipping.  It may be recalled here that the terrorists who carried out the Mumbai attacks in2008 gained their entry through the coast. The bitter experience necessitated greater attention being given to the coasts. A nation cannot afford to throw caution to the winds. Now, with the AIS, India’s 7,500-km coastline is better and more effectively guarded.

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