INS Kattabomman is the designation of the VLF-transmission facility of the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy (IN) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Navy, maritime and Amphibious warfare, amphibious branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of the Naval Staff (India), Chief ...

situated at Vijayanarayanam near

Tirunelveli Tirunelveli (), also known as Nellai and historically (during British rule) as Tinnevelly, is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of the Tirunelveli District. It is the fourth-largest munici ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. The facility spread over 3,000 acres has 13 masts, which are arranged in two rings around the central mast. The centre mast has a height of 301 metres, the masts on the inner ring measure 276.4 metres, that on the outer ring measure 227.4 metres. The facility broadcasts at frequencies of 16.3 kHz, 17.0 kHz, 18.2 kHz, and 19.2 kHz. Two further masts of the station carrying an umbrella antenna, the INS Kattabomman is 471 metres tall and the tallest structure in India. They are also the tallest military structure in the world. The facility opened an

ELF An elf (: elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic peoples, Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in Norse mythology, North Germanic mythology, being mentioned in the Icelandic ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda'' ...

transmission facility in 2014.

History

Development and construction of INS Kattabomman started in 1984 as Project Skylark and costed . It was commissioned into service by Indian President

Ramaswamy Venkataraman Ramaswamy Venkataraman (, 4 December 191027 January 2009), also known as R. Venkataraman, was an Indian lawyer, independence activist and politician who served as a union minister and as the president of India. Venkataraman was born in Rajam ...

on 20 October 1990. It is named after king Veera Pandya Kattabomman, who died during the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

. After operationalising the base, India became the seventh country in the world to have developed the

Very low frequency Very low frequency or VLF is the ITU designation for radio frequencies (RF) in the range of 3–30 kHz, corresponding to wavelengths from 100 to 10 km, respectively. The band is also known as the myriameter band or myriameter wave ...

communication capability.

Further development

VLF upgrades

On 31 July 2014, a new

facility was inaugurated at INS Kattabomman. The upgrade was contracted to

Larsen & Toubro Larsen & Toubro Limited, abbreviated as L&T, is an Indian multinational conglomerate, with interests in industrial technology, heavy industry, engineering, construction, manufacturing, power, information technology, defence and financial se ...

. The upgrade included digitising the control interface.

Extremely low frequency facility

Extremely low frequency Extremely low frequency (ELF) is the ITU designation for electromagnetic radiation (radio waves) with frequencies from 3 to 30 Hz, and corresponding wavelengths of 100,000 to 10,000 kilometers, respectively. In atmospheric sc ...

communication facility is also present near the VLF facility, construction of which commenced in March 2012. The facility is used by the Nuclear Command Authority to communicate with the Arihant-class submarines. India is the second country after

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

to actively operate an

facility; the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

had discontinued using it in 2004. Another such facility is proposed in Damagundam Reserve Forest (approximately at 17°16'N 77°56'E ). This 2nd facility had the foundation stone laid in Oct 15 2024 with a plan to be operational by 2027

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:INS Kattabomman Communication towers in India Katta 1990 establishments in Tamil Nadu Towers completed in 1990 Buildings and structures in Tamil Nadu 20th-century architecture in India

History

Further development

VLF upgrades

Extremely low frequency facility

See also

References