India’s Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has been invited for commercial and technical negotiations from the Oman government for the supply of Coastal Surveillance systems (CSS).

“Oman has a requirement for new coastal surveillance system established in their country. They have sought global bids. BEL submitted the bid. Our technical proposal is as per the requirements of the Oman government. We have been invited for commercial and technical negotiations,” Chairman and Managing Director of BEL, M V Gowtama said in an interview.

“Apart from BEL, there are some other countries competing for the contract in Oman,” he added.

The CSS provides scalable surveillance solutions for vessels, ports, waterways, high threat-prone assets and offshore facilities. Using the system, it is possible to monitor an entire coastline, as the system presents the complete scenario at a centralised Command Centre on a digital map. The system is also useful in large-scale search and rescue operations.

The system tracks and identifies boats near the coastline. Multiple radars and other sensors (Thermal Imagers, Automated Identification System, CC camera etc) are correlated to provide a composite operating picture. It can thus detect and identifies vessels entering unauthorised buffer zones around offshore oil and gas platforms also.

In February last year, the Indian Defence Ministry had cleared a project to set up 38 radar stations to significantly ramp up surveillance of the country’s over 7,500 km long coastline worth INR 800 crore ($118.5 million).