State-of-the-art equipment would be installed in all the 162 lighthouses in India in a phased manner for automatic location and identification of ships at sea.

"It will help identify enemy ships entering Indian waters," Deputy Director General of Lighthouses and Light Ships, Kolkata region, Ram Prakash, said during a visit to Gopalpur, 18 km from Berhampur.

Lighthouses at present collected data about location of ships in their range during war-exercises for dissemination to the Indian Navy on request.

"When automatic identifiction equipment is installed, location of the ships and their duration of stay in a particular range can be recorded," he said.

Prakash, who was in Berhampur to review the progress of three proposed lighthouses in Orissa, said once the automation work was completed, all lighthouses would be controlled from the central office.

The government had already cleared construction of three new lighthouses on the Orissa coast near Prayagi in Ganjam disitrict, Astaranga in Puri district and Dhamra in Bhadrak district this year.

Construction has started at Prayagi while it could not take off at the other two places because of delay in land acquisition and environmental clearance, Prakash said.

"Work for a 30-metre high lighthouse at Prayagi is going on speedily and likely to be completed by this year end," he said.

About Rs 1.50 crore would be spent on the project.

The height of the proposed lighthouse near Astaranga would be 45 mt and 30 mt for the one near Dhamra, Prakash, who visited the places, said.

About Rs 3 crore would be spent for these two projects, he said.

At present there are five lighthouses in Orissa at Gopalpur, Paradip, Puri, Chandrabhaga and False Point.