Tuesday, January 25 2005 22:41 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: India today (Jan 25, 2005) said its tsunami early warning system will be fully operational by September 2007 and expressed willingness to contribute to the establishment of such a mechanism for the Indian Ocean region.

The Indian tsunami early warning system will be in place by March 2006 and will be fully operational by September 2007 after testing, Advisor and Head of Seismology Division of the Ministry of Science and Technology, G D Gupta, said at the opening session of the China-ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Workshop on Tsunami Warning in Beijing.

Pointing out that India had a strong institutional backbone for setting up an independent early warning system, Gupta told international experts that New Delhi is willing to contribute to the proposed regional tsunami early warning system.

Gupta told the participants at the two-day close-door workshop that India recently hosted a two-day "brain-storming session" on the tsunami and its aftermath in which nearly 100 scientists and managers, many of them from the field of seismology, took part.

Over 30 seismic and oceanographic experts from countries like India, China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand, the worst-hit nations from the December 26 earthquake and tsunami, as well as international experts are meeting in Beijing to chalk out a joint strategy to forecast natural disasters.

Director of Seismology in Indian Meteorological Department, R S Dattatrayam, also presented a country report paper on the tsunami tragedy in India at the workshop, hosted by the China Earthquake Administration (CEA).

The theme of the workshop is to sum up the experience and lessons from the tsunami disaster to investigate the hardware and technology in this region, negotiate how to further strengthen cooperation, discuss the work plan for early warning of tsunami caused by earthquake through forecasting earthquake, a Chinese official said.

"We hope that solid development will be made at the workshop in enhancing technical cooperation and effectively preventing similar disasters from damaging this region," he said.