It’s not unusual for fisherfolk who venture out into the sea to accidentally stray into international waters, an act which can result in serious consequences including arrest and detention by marine law enforcers of other countries. But such incidents could be a thing of the past soon. The department of telecom in association with district administration has introduced an app for fishermen which will provide information regarding their distance to the shore and their position in the sea during fishing. It will also give details like the distance to international boundaries, potential fishing areas, nearest harbour and weather reports. The project is being implemented in Ernakulam on a pilot basis. “It’s the first-of-its-kind project in the country. The app will provide fishermen with vital information on international boundaries, potential fishing areas, nearest harbor, vessels in their proximity, accident prone zones and weather reports. We will start the trial run of the project from Wednesday,” said district collector K Mohammed Y Safirulla. Christened E-Samudra, the app that currently works on android platform was developed by Keltron with support from Neonicz Software Solutions Pvt Ltd. The fishermen, through the app, will be able to know port-wise and species-wise landing price for a particular day. The app will also provide information on various welfare schemes for fishermen introduced by the government. It will also ensure connectivity with their families back home. As part of the project the telecom providers were asked to ensure cellphone coverage up to 20-25 km off the Kerala coast. “Enhanced coverage up to maritime borders has been extended for both voice and data across the Kerala coast through 800 Mhz frequency band. Earlier, there was no coverage in the sea as the telecom providers wouldn’t install antennas towards the direction of sea. Now, one telecom provider has ensured the coverage,” said a DoT official. As of now only one telecom provider could complete the preparations for providing extensive coverage along coastal belt. “Other telecom service providers (TSPs) also have started making progress in enhancing mobile coverage across sea coast,” the official said. As per a rough estimate there are around 1.5 lakh fishermen living along the coastal belt of the state. The fisheries department will take the initiative to make them adopt the new technology. The project is likely to be extended to other parts of the country, sources with DoT said. Initial rounds of discussions between the DoT officials in Kerala and other states have already been completed.
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