India Unveils Coastal Surveillance System

India Aug. 3 launched its National Automatic Identification System (NAIS), aimed at ensuring effective coordination for coastal surveillance. Saab of Sweden and Indian defense major Elcome Marine Services built the NAIS at a cost of more than $22 million.

NAIS connects 74 sensors installed on lighthouses along the entire coastline of India that will be able to track vessels to a distance of 50 kilometers from the coast. NAIS provides real-time traffic information and the web server allows access to live data over the Internet.

“The project comprised installation of sensors and equipments along the Indian coast for regional and national control centers. Saab implemented the entire gamut of the project, which included installation, commissioning, training and support, along with their Indian partner, Elcome Marine Services,” said an executive of Elcome.

Saab and Elcome signed the NAIS deal in November 2010 and the project was finally accepted by the Indian government in May 2012.

Elcome provided the overall project management, site survey, installation of equipment, sourcing of equipment locally, such as servers, workstations, switches and routers, very small aperture terminal racks, generators and civil works , claimed the Elcome executive.

Seventy four base stations have been installed in lighthouses with six regional control and two coastal control centers, in addition to one national data center. There are monitoring stations at Navy, Coast Guard and other centers under the project.