India has launched the “Real-time Vessel Tracking System” in order to help the seafarers and fishermen as and when they need. This system has been named as “Sagar-Manthan: Mercantile Marine Domain Awareness Centre (MMDAC)”.
Highlights
The system was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Maritime India Summit-2021. While inaugurating the system, the Prime Minister highlighted that the India is developing “Mega ports with world-class infrastructure at Paradip, Vadhavan, and Deendayal Ports”. He also said that domestic waterways are cost effective and environment friendly way of transporting the freight. So, India aims to operationalise 23 waterways by 2030”. He further stated that, the “Eastern Waterways Connectivity Transport Grid” that establishes the regional connectivity with Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bhutan will also be strengthened in order to boost the effective regional trade and cooperation.
About Sagar-Manthan: MMDAC
The Vessel Tracking System have the capability of tracking the Indian vessels on the global level. It can also be used to track foreign vessels within 1,000-km of the coastline of India. Vessel will be operated by DG Shipping. It can provide help in the emergency cases. The system also comprises of the elements of security. In order to develop the security elements, the DG Shipping collaborated with the Indian Navy. India will also be sharing this system with the countries like Sri Lanka and Maldives.
Maritime India Summit 2021
Maritime Summit is one of the largest virtual summits across the world. It is a three-day summit. The summit observed the participation of 1.7 lakh participants from around 100 nations. Summit will be marked by the presence of the ministers from 8 countries, 50 global CEOs and around 160 speakers and 115 international speakers of 24 nations. For the summit, around 1 lakh participants coming from 50 countries have registered online.
Eastern Waterways Connectivity Transport Grid (EWaCTG)
This project was launched with the aim of providing a seamless connectivity between the National Waterway-1 and National Waterway-2 through Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) routes. It will also be developing an economic corridor of 4,200 km of waterways and coastal shipping in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and North-Eastern States of India. The project seeks to establish a way for regional integration among the five countries namely Bhutan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar.