New Delhi/Hyderabad, Mar 11: India faces no threat of tsunami from the massive earthquake that hit Japan today, Government said, allaying fears of the repeat of 2004 when the southern parts of the country were devastated by the tidal waves.
"As of now I am informed there is no threat of such tsunami hitting any part of our country," Minister of State for Earth Sciences Ashwani Kumar told reporters hours after the quake of 8.9 magnitude struck in Japan.
He said the Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is monitoring the situation and is in touch with its counterpart in Indonesia and Philippines.
The current tidal situation is being monitored on a "minute to minute" basis, the Minister said.
He said normal movement of the tsunami would be from east of Indonesia to western side and then northwards. The Union Home Ministry, in a statement, also said INCOIS has informed that the tsunami threat does not exist in respect of India.
In Hyderabad, National Disaster Management Authority, Vice-Chairman M Sashidhar Reddy told reporters, "In less than eight minutes, the INCOIS which has a tsunami early warning centre, issued a bulletin in which it has been clearly stated India does not have any threat."
"In fact, the entire Indian Ocean region does not have any Tsunami threat. So, as things stand there is no question of any threat to the Indian coast right now and this will continue to be so, " Reddy, a senior Congress MLA, said.
India's southern part, particularly Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry and Kerala were hit by tsunami on December 26, 2004 triggered by earthquake off the coast of Indonesia, leaving over 10,000 dead and several lakh homeless. PTI
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