Friday, December 9 2005 20:03 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) is setting up a 17-station Real Time Seismic Monitoring Network as a part of the Early Warning System for tsunami and storm surges in Indian Ocean, government told the Lok Sabha today (December 9, 2005).

Each station will be equipped with seismic and Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors with facility to transmit the data through satellite to a central receiving station at IMD, Delhi and Hyderabad (Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, Department of Ocean Development) for real-time processing and interpretation, Minister of State for Science and Technology (Independent Charge) Kapil Sibal said in a written reply.

An amount of Rs 12 crore has been earmarked for the project, he said adding it is expected that the equipments will be received by March, next year, and installed shortly thereafter.

Centre: Government has set up an Earthquake Risk Evaluation Centre (EREC) in Delhi, as an independent wing of IMD, Sibal said.

The principle mandate of EREC is to collate and integrate various data sets and to prepare the site-specific earthquake- risk maps, the minister said.

Doppler: Government proposes to set up a Doppler Weather radar in Mumbai, he said.