India will have its own state-of-art earthquake warning system installed in next five years. The President of Geological Society of India, Harsh Gupta said in Varanasi that Koyna in Maharashtra has been selected for the project.

He said earthquake warning sensors will be installed in a borehole as deep as 7 kilometres below the earth surface. Apart from this, four 1.5 Kilometres-deep pilot boreholes will be dug to observe earth’s activities. The boreholes will provide direct observational data and contribute to earthquake hazard reduction. He said nearly 40 centres across the country will receive signals from observational hole. Koyna is the best known example of reservoir-triggered earthquakes and has one kilometres wide lava crust beneath it.

He said, the project will be funded mainly by the Ministry of Earth Sciences and supported by various national and international organisations. Mr. Gupta said, Tsunami Warning Systems have already been installed in Indian and Arabian Oceans.

Mr. Gupta said that the Koyna Earthquake Warning Project will cost around 400 crore rupees and will the first of its kind in the world.