A naval vessel sails in waters off the border island of Yeonpyeong on July 1, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will officially launch maritime e-Navigation, a service designed to ensure the safe sailing of vessels, on Saturday.
e-Navigation is an ultra-high speed digital telecommunication network that enables communication even at sea up to 100 kilometers away from the seashore.
The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries completed preparations for the launch of the service by installing 621 transmitting and receiving devices at 263 base stations throughout coastal areas nationwide.
The service offers an electronic sea chart that is automatically updated on a real time basis, while providing automatic audio guidance to ships when there is a risk of collision or stranding.
Distress calls are automatically connected to the navigation operation center. The service also supports remote medical care by naval vessels.
The new service enables voice and video communication between vessels, automatically reports port entry and departure of fishing boats, and monitors the operational status of passenger ships on a real-time basis.
The ministry stressed that the service would contribute to reducing marine accidents by 30 percent.
The ministry added that e-Navigation is technologically advanced compared to Europe’s sea traffic management (STM) project despite the fact that the continent started developing the functions of automatically providing optimal sea routes and collision risk alarms earlier than South Korea.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
