Kochi: The report submitted by the Cochin Port Trust (CPT) on the Vypeen Boat tragedy has cautioned the State Government to have strict monitoring of fishing vessels on the Kerala coast to prevent the possibility of a 26/11 model attack in Kerala.
The CPT in its report points out that the Karachi-based terrorists during the Mumbai terror attack had reached the spot in a fishing vessel and in view of this, the report urges the state government to build up a system to ensure safety.
It was after finding that the fisheries department had failed to monitor the fishing fleet in Kerala that the CPT has urged the state government to form a new system on a war-footing.
The report recommends that equipping all fishing vessels with automatic identification system (AIS) would be an effective solution for the effective monitoring of vessels.
“The automatic identification system (AIS) is a satellite-based automatic system used in vessels for identifying and locating vessels by exchanging data with nearby ships, stations and satellites.
AIS equipment provides information like the position, course, speed, movement etc and it will be displayed on a screen. The AIS broadcasts information at regular intervals via transmitters into the receivers installed at the stations and other vessels,” said an official from the CPT.
The information originates from the sensor of the vessel and other information such as the vessel name are programmed when installing the equipment for transmission along with the transmission of other information.
“The presence of vessels which are not in the system and unusual movements of vessels can be spotted with the system. The cost of installing the AIS equipment varies from Rs 10,000 to 50,000. It is widely used to monitor the national fishing fleets. The equipment enables monitoring of the fishing vessels reliably and cost effectively. The AIS has a reach of up to 60 nautical miles and thorough monitoring is possible with this,” added the official.
At present no such facilities are available in fishing boats but licensing and surveying are supposed to be done by the fisheries department. But the fisheries department has failed to do this too.
The CPT does not licence fishing boats and in view of the failure of the fisheries department, the CPT is thinking of re-evaluating its stand, said the report.
