The government is in the process of establishing a tsunami early warning system at a cost of Rs 125 crore, Minister for Science and Technology and Ocean Development Kapil Sibal said on Wednesday.

He said the system was expected to be in place in the next two to two-and-half-years.

"The system will be able to provide information beforehand on the speed of the tsunami when it hits the coast and the regions that will be harmed the most," he told reporters.

The process of establishing the system involved installing Deep Ocean Assessment Reporting Technology at a depth of six km in oceans. The technology would be connected to data voice, Sibal said.

The warning system also involved developing necessary software technologies, he added.

Earlier, inaugurating Microsoft Research India's operations in Bangalore, Sibal stressed on the need for building spatial technology to create a database for the country.

"With the help of spatial data and aerial photography, each village needs to be mapped," he said.

The minister said a national spatial data infrastructure policy was expected to be unveiled soon.

The Centre was planning to expand the 'Mapping the neighbourhood' programme, which was launched in some schools a year ago, to 30,000 schools in the country, the minister said.

Under the programme, students are given a device with which they list locations of schools, health centres, water sources, dwellings and buildings.