PTI
 
New Delhi, Dec 25: As India remembers the victims of the killer tsunami on its second anniversary, scientists are busy to meet the September 2007 deadline of putting in place a warning system for the killer waves and storm surges.

Twenty automatic tide gauges have already been installed in the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean that would enable monitoring of tidal activity round-the-clock.

Thirty more such gauges are planned to be installed along the Indian coastline to alert the residents of the coastal regions of an impending tsunami in a bid to avoid a repeat of the 2004 disaster, when several thousands of people were killed due to lack of advance warning about the killer tidal waves.

The ministry is working with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for setting up of satellite-based communication facility for receiving real time data from the tide gauges and the bottom pressure recorders, Minister for Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal said.

He said an Early Warning System for Tsunami and Storm Surges in the Indian Ocean was likely to be operational by September 2007.

An interim early warning mechanism is already operational round-the-clock at the Indian National Centre for Information Services, Hyderabad.

The warning system is being set up after the December 26, 2004, tsunami, triggered by an earthquake west of Indonesia, killed an estimated 2.5 lakh people in a dozen countries in south and south-east Asia.