GOP takes control of Habour Control Tower operation at Khalifa Bin Salman Port

The General Organisation of Sea Ports (GOP), the regulator of Bahrain’s maritime affairs, today announced that it had taken complete charge of the Vessel Traffic Management System (VTMS) operations at the Khalifa Bin Salman Port’s (KBSP) harbour control tower.  This initiative was launched by the GOP in order to help secure coastal surveillance and maintain sovereignty in the Kingdom’s surrounding territorial waters.

A complete team of VTMS trained GOP professionals has begun to closely monitor the high performance navigation system to ensure continuous surveillance of vessel movement, compliance of safe navigation regulations and protect the Kingdom’s marine environment.

Commenting on the announcement, the Director General of GOP, Hassan Ali Al Majed, said: “As the regulatory and supervisory authority of Bahrain’s maritime affairs, we at GOP are committed to improving the efficiency of Bahrain’s ports and supervising all maritime activities. Our control of VTMS operations at the state-of-the-art Khalifa Bin Salman Port will help us track live ship positions, closely monitor vessel traffic and movement in the anchorage area and on the main route to KBSP, as well as assist with regulating vessel flow both entering and leaving Bahrain’s ports.“ 

The Vessel Traffic Management System is one of the latest cutting-edge technologies installed at the KBSP which helps to improve the safety of vessel traffic, provides information regarding traffic situations during bad weather, regulates maritime traffic flow, improves the planning of vessel berth, anchoring area occupancy and traffic, and tracks violations of navigational rules inside the controlled area, as well as serving several other functions with the help of specially installed radar coverage.

The GOP is committed to demonstrating the professional excellence of the maritime and shipping industry in Bahrain, and offering quality services that meet the increasing needs of users and stakeholders alike. Recently GOP was awarded the ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management Systems (QMS) certification for conformity to the highest international standards across in all its activities and across all departments within the organisation.