KOLLAM: The mechanised fishing boats in the state will soon get high-tech registration boards as part of enhancing coastal security in the light of the 2012 Italian marine fire on local fishermen.
The boats ferrying through the national and international waters will be equipped with GPRS enabled high-security registration systems (HRS) that facilitate easy identification by the coastguard and the navy. It will also help curb illegal registrations.
The fisheries department has received the administrative sanction to implement the first phase of the project in 300 fishing boats from Neendakara.
“At least 300 mechanised boats will soon be installed with security registration plates. Presently, all such boats bear registration numbers merely painted on it. This is vulnerable to manipulations as more than one boats operate using a single number,” a top fisheries official told DC.
“Very often, even the coastguard and the navy may fail to identify such boats. So such a security measure is needed. It has unique security features like holograms to prevent duplicating”.
The newly designed registration plates will be a meter in height and is shaped like a pyramid. The GPS equipped boards will be installed on top of the boats. The number marked on it can be viewed from all four sides and even from the top in case of helicopter surveillance.
It is made of retro-reflective sheet which helps identify the boats and corresponding numbers from very long distances, the board also bears hologram and has been designed by the C-DIT. The fiberglass plates resist salt water and humidity.
The boards will bear details like the owner’s name, classification, country, state, embossed registration number and other details incorporated in an embedded chip that could be read using scanners.
