India resumes work on radars in Maldives

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 26

Six months after the ousting of the Maldives’ “pro-China” President Abdulla Yameen, India has resumed its work of installing a chain of radars on the islands that will link up with the existing naval radar chain in India to provide live feed.

The islands of Maldives located some 700 km south-west of Kerala are an important part of the seagoing traffic monitoring system that India is building.

India is to set up 10 coastal surveillance radars made by public sector giant Bharat Electronics Limited. Work has resumed full steam after political uncertainty ended in the Maldives. Yameen was ousted in September 2018.

Currently, phase-II of the coastal surveillance radar project is under way during which seven radar stations are being installed and three existing radar stations of phase-I are being upgraded.

All 10 radar stations will be linked to a central control station at the Maldives Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre at Vilingilli island near Male to give the Maldives Coast Guard an integrated maritime picture. The project would be completed within this year, sources said.

India is setting up the “chain of radars” to link it up with the 46 coastal surveillance radars installed all along its 7,519 km coast. Sri Lanka will host six radars, Mauritius eight, Seychelles one and Maldives will have 10. These will present comprehensive live feed of ship movements in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). This feed will then be used by the Indian Navy and its allies through the Indian Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR).

The new generation of radars for Maldives will enable relay of location information, videos and images of ships to a central command unit.

Eye on coast

India is setting up the “chain of radars” to link it up with the 46 coastal surveillance radars installed all along its 7,519 km coast. Sri Lanka will host six radars, Mauritius eight, Seychelles one and Maldives will have 10