Maritime Rescue is preparing the imminent renewal of the radar system that allows it to control maritime traffic in the waters between Gran Canaria, Tenerife and Fuerteventuraas well as the approach, anchoring and interior dock areas of the Port of Las Palmas. The company, which depends on the General Directorate of the Merchant Navy, has just awarded the contract to update these systems in several Spanish coordination centers, including The Palms.
The company Deimos, a subsidiary of Elecnor, will receive 3,776,200 euros for supplying and installing new equipment in The Gran Canarian palms, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Bilbao, Santander, Gijón and A Coruña in a period of no more than two years. The “obsolescence of the existing radar subsystem equipment” makes its renewal necessary, as recognized by Marina Mercante in the technical specifications, something that will be done in parallel to the update of the maritime traffic control systems, known as VTS, also recently awarded. to the Kongsberg firm.
The radar system is made up of three facilities in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, although one of them, the coordination center itself, is not part of the program of renewal. The other two are located at the top of the León y Castillo dock silo and at the Faro de The Islet. In both cases, the current units will be completely replaced.
The network is divided between a silo in the Port, the La Isleta lighthouse and the coordination center
The new equipment must guarantee the same coverage as the old ones. In the case of the silo, the radars will ensure complete coverage of the approach to the port of Las Palmas, the interior of the docks and the anchoring areas. From La Isleta the traffic separation devices located between Tenerife and Gran Canaria, and between this island and Fuerteventura, will be covered. Hundreds of coastal ships and large transoceanic lines cross each day in both inter-island channels that do not necessarily stop at the Archipelago, but that navigate its waters during their Atlantic crossings.
The Maritime Rescue coordination centers carry out Canary Islands a fundamental work in the search and rescue of boats with migrants, although their work goes further. They also have responsibility for the control and assistance of maritime traffic and the prevention and fight against pollution of the marine environment, among other tasks entrusted to them by the Merchant Marine. In the case of Las Palmas, the transfer of the center from the building of the Port Authority to the new Maritime Captaincy property, as explained in May by the maritime captain of the province, Francisco Garcia Lascurain, in an interview with this newspaper.
