BMG to set up 160 quake stations

JAKARTA: The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) announced on Friday it would set up 160 earthquake monitoring stations across Indonesia.

"Currently, we only have 31 stations, so our collection of data is quite slow, namely between 30 and 60 minutes (after an earthquake)," BMG head Gunawan Ibrahim said following a meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta.

He said the additional monitoring stations would speed up the agency's data collecting capability to up to five minutes after an earthquake hit.

"The goal of setting up the 160 stations will be achieved in two years," said Gunawan, who met with the President and Minister of Home Affairs Muhammad Ma'ruf to discuss the handling of future disasters. --Antara