The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) will embark on several new initiatives as part of its continued efforts to enhance safety at sea, announced Senior Minister of State for Ministry of Transport & Ministry of Health, Dr. Lam Pin Min, at the official opening of the International Safety@Sea Conference on 20 June.
Firstly, a new maritime research Centre of Excellence in Maritime Safety (CEMS) will be set up by Singapore Maritime Institute and Singapore Polytechnic to enhance navigational safety.
The CEMS will focus on research and innovations that enhance navigational safety. It will contribute to the training and development of future-ready seafarers, through the use of emerging digital technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality.
To capture vessel movements more efficiently and accurately, MPA will upgrade the Vessel Traffic Information System (VTIS) this year. This includes improvements to the resolution of CCTV and video analytics capabilities, and expansion of the data bandwidth between the VTIS and radar stations to enhance situational awareness through ensuring high resolution radar plots.
To facilitate real-time data transfer between shore and ships in the port, MPA will be investing $500,000 in the development of the VHF Data Exchange System (VDES) over the next three years. This is part of the Next Generation Vessel Traffic Management System R&D project at the MPA Living Lab.
With greater data exchange between shore and ships, predictive analysis relating to navigational safety such as traffic hotspots and collision risks could be made at shore and shared with ships.
The VDES is currently being developed and prototyped. Field trials will be carried out under the MPA Living Lab from the second half of this year across a range of e-Navigation and digital applications.
Earlier in the week, MPA launched a refreshed Safety@Sea Singapore Campaign and announced that it will co-fund the upgrading of new buckle-type lifejackets and customised lifejacket receptacles onboard all MPA-licensed regional ferries to enhance passenger safety. These ferries carried 6.5 million passengers on Singapore-Malaysia and Singapore-Indonesia routes in 2017.
