The tsunami warning siren will also alert the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, disaster management authorities and the Indian Navy. (Agence France-Presse photo)
A newly-installed tsunami early warning system siren was successfully tested in Mumbai today.
The siren and a digital electronic board is part of a system for issuing early warning in case of a tsunami threat in the Indian Ocean region.
The siren has a radical range of three kilometres in all directions and will have continuous hoot for one minute.
In case of a threat, seven tsunami buoys with sensors will record the height and speed of waves and will alert the monitoring centre in Hyderabad.
Thirty-six tidal gauges will alert the centre about the possibility of tsunami. The centre will then set off the remotely controlled siren to alert the places that may be affected.
The warning siren will give Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), disaster management authorities and the Indian Navy time to prevent the possible damage that can be caused by a tsunami.
The system is installed at the Meteorology Office of Western Naval Command by Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Earth & Sciences (MoES), Government of India.
Captain KLV Prabhakaran for the Regional Meteorological Command told reporters, "In case of a tsunami warning, this office which is manned 24x7 gets the information and immediately passes it on to the local authorities and the navy to prevent a disaster. The system is centrally monitored by Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services."
The alert system is important step for cities like Mumbai where a large population lives around the coastline.