Australia, Japan, Korea, Russia express interest to join hands with India for satellite navigation

India's navigation satellite to go fully operational in 2016

Countries including Australia, Japan, Korea and Russia have expressed interest for cooperation in satellite navigation and applications with India.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, PG & Pensions, Jitendra Singh in a written reply to an unstarred question in the Lok Sabha today said that "the cooperation will be pursued on receiving specific proposals from these countries".

He added, in the area of satellite navigation, India has established GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) system primarily for the use by aviation sector. GAGAN provides improved position accuracy over the Indian region. This system is based on Global Positioning System (GPS) of USA.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has undertaken a project for developing an indigenous regional positioning system for India known as Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), which consists of seven satellites in a constellation, three satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO) and four satellites in geosynchronous orbit (GSO).

IRNSS will provide positioning and navigational services in Indian mainland and surrounding region upto 1500 Km. Out of the 7 satellites required in the constellation, four satellites namely, IRNSS-IA, 1B, 1C and 1D have already been successfully placed in the orbit.

GAGAN System has already been certified by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to provide Non-Precision Approach services for "En-route Navigation" over Indian Airspace and it is expected to operationalise in 2015 and IRNSS is expected to operationalise in 2016.

"The Satellite Navigational System will benefit the country in the areas of civil aviation, high sea and inland waterway navigation, rail transport, patrol services and vehicle tracking & fleet monitoring. The navigation system provides precise position & location information and accurate timing information to the users which will benefit the user by way of improved efficiency of operations, cost and time saving, enhanced safety of people, etc," said the Minister.