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| Sunday, 15 May 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Colomboradio: Sinking in techno mire by Rohan Mathes
The luxury passenger liner 'Titanic' hit a drifting iceberg at sea on April 14, 1912, during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. Its passengers and crew, men, women and children in their numbers, drowned in the bellowing North Atlantic ocean. Few survived to relate the tale of this greatest ever tragedy at sea, now a legend. Throughout history, similar or more catastrophic natural calamities such as earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanos, bush fires, floods, typhoons and cyclones have occurred and destroyed mankind. The common factor in these disasters has been the inability of man to reconcile and come to terms with mother nature, and avert the magnitude of the damage with the assistance of modern technology. The Titanic was equipped with the conventional 'Morse' Radiotelegraphy equipment which was dominant in that era, and the 'Save Our Souls' (SOS) signals were transmitted by the Radio Officer on board ship. But the emergency device had fallen short of averting the grave and imminent danger. Role of the Maritime Mobile Service The global maritime mobile service is primarily intended for Radio communications between ships at sea and/or between ships at sea and shore, in order to meet their essential shipping requirements such as safety of navigation, safety of human life at sea (Search and Rescue), broadcasting of notices to mariners, meteorological bulletins, medical advice, ship operational messages, exchange of commercial traffic, port operations services, ship movement services and radio navigation among others. At present, Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) carries the onus for the provision of ship to shore communication via the maritime radio station known as Colomboradio/4PB, which provides this vital nexus from the sixth floor of the OTS building in Colombo Fort. The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) Maritime distress and safety communications reached a new era in February 1999, with the full implementation of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS), an integrated communications system using satellite and terrestrial radio communications. It made the once indispensable 'Marine Radio Officer' redundant, as comparatively little training and skill is required for its operations. At the press of a button, the ship's position, speed, identity and its nature of distress could be transmitted automatically. Normal voice could be used to communicate with a rescue co-ordination centre. It combines terrestrial and satellite technology and shipboard systems to ensure rapid, automated alerting of shore-based communications, rescue authorities and other mobile stations in the vicinity, in a distress situation. It also incorporates float-free satellite based emergency position-indicating radio beacons (EPIRB) which emits vital information pertaining to the distressed ships. Under the GMDSS, all passenger and cargo ships over 300 gross tonnage, sailing on international voyages, have to carry specified satellite and radiocommunications equipment, to send and receive distress alerts, maritime safety information and general communications. Those regulations governing the GMDSS are contained in the International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS). The convention has been ratified by 138 countries, including Sri Lanka, and covers 98.36 per cent of the world merchant shipping fleet by tonnage. The implementation of the GMDSS is the responsibility of the contracting Governments, including Sri Lanka. Each contracting Government undertakes, as it deems necessary either individually or in co-operation with other governments, to provide appropriate shore-based facilities for space and terrestrial radio-communications services. The individual ship-owners are also obliged to ensure that their ships adhere to the GMDSS requirements. Colomboradio lacks GMDSS facilities However, Sri Lanka's premier 'Maritime Radio Station' Colomboradio/4PB lacks the vital GMDSS facilities to date. It has become immensely difficult or almost impossible to raise vessels via their available communication modes, as those modes have become outdated in the modern ships. This deficiency has been a long-felt need of the international shipping community and seafarers sailing the sea areas covered by Colomboradio. Ironically, it appears that the two premier institutions which hold the onus for the development of telecommunication facilities in the country, the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) and the Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) has been passing the buck to each other, and as a result, no tangible progress has been made in this vital requirement of marine communications. SLT which controls the maritime radio station Colomboradio, is believed to have taken up the matter with the Telecommunication Ministry, Human Disaster Management Ministry and the TRC in the past. As SLT lacks funds for this highly capital extensive project, it has requested TRC assistance. The TRC and the SLT have met and held discussions on the procurement and installation of GMDSS. However, due to various red tape and bureaucratic bungling, no progress has been made and the whole project seems to have reached a deadlock situation. The TRC's Deputy Director Networks, Dharmasiri Alwis when contacted by the Sunday Observer said that some steps had been taken for the implementation of the GMDSS in the past, but no one was prepared to take responsibility of the project due to its non-profit making orientation. The former Director General TRC, Themiya Hurulle when asked about the project told the Sunday Observer, "We initiated the GMDSS project during our time and project proposals were made to implement it. The government had to decide who was to run it. However now, nobody seems to be interested in it", he opined. The Officer-in-Charge of Colomboradio S.E. Sigamani claimed that Colomboradio which holds the responsibility for the search and rescue operations of a vast area in the Indian Ocean (as shown in the map), is incapacitated due to its inability in verifying the authenticity of the distress alerts it receives very often from Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres (MRCCs) of Singapore, Australia and Japan and INMCCs of Bangalore and Chennai among others. "We receive distress alerts very often but we don't have the proper equipment to verify them. We still have an obsolete 'Morse Telegraphy' radio station and VHF on channel 16, which is not maintained by any ship station at present. So, virtually Colomboradio is at a standstill, unable to be of any significant service to the maritime mobile service for which we are responsible for", he quipped. The Chairman of Ceylon Association of Ships Agents (CASA) and Group Executive Director Greenlanka Shipping Ltd., Capt. A.V. Rajendra said, "as a signatory to the SOLAS Convention, we are primarily obliged to be involved in rescue operations and save human lives in grave and imminent danger within our area as immediate assistance could only be obtained from Sri Lanka. "We should also be mindful of the fact that a ship in distress, depending on the nature of distress and the damage caused, may also pollute our waters. "Without the GMDSS, we are only displaying our ignorance and negligence of duty." The Harbour Master, Colombo Port, Nihal Keppitipola noted, "although GMDSS does not directly come under my purview, as Harbour Master, I think that considering the traffic density of vessels in our region, GMDSS is an urgent necessity mainly for search and rescue in the marine and fishing sectors". Commodore Jayantha Perera of the Navy said, "around 200 nautical miles off shore, the Navy has its own rescue communication systems and don't depend on GMDSS. However, if the Navy goes on a foreign cruise, we need GMDSS. So it is a must as otherwise we will be far behind the rest of the world". (The Writer of this article was an ex-Aeronautical Communication Officer, Civil Aviation Department, former Marine Radio Officer and former Chief Radio Officer, Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources). |
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| Produced by Lake House |
The tsunami tidal wave struck the coastal belt of Sri Lanka on Boxing day
last year. It caused wanton destruction to human lives and property both
movable and immovable. 
