According to the written reply by the minister of state (Independent charge) for the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and in the Prime Minister’s office, in the Lok Sabha, the total number of navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) satellites launched are 11; out of these eight satellites are functional. Three satellites are broadcasting navigation signals and five satellites are capable of broadcasting signals for one-way messaging.
NavIC constellation is designed to provide position, navigation and timing (PNT) services over India and a region extending up to 1500 kilometre (km) from Indian land mass for various applications such as civilian navigation, maritime operations and disaster management. Discussions are ongoing with Airport Authority of India/Ministry of Civil Aviation on adoption of NavIC in air traffic management.
Further, India’s space-based augmentation system GAGAN is operational and providing services for air navigation. Department of Space is constantly engaged in efforts to broaden the use of NavIC in various critical infrastructures such as real-time train tracking, fishing vessel communication and support system, location system on public and commercial vehicles for passenger safety, and IST dissemination.
Department of Space is actively working for operationalisation of NavIC and associated satellite systems for providing secure navigation service. The roadmap for further strengthening satellite navigation architecture includes completion of NavIC base layer constellation and suitable enhancement in services to meet the user requirements, and induction of indigenous technologies including space-grade atomic clock for technological self-reliance.
