Shanghai's ability to save lives at sea needs to improve, a senior official said yesterday.
"We still lag behind in our deepwater and high seas rescue ability," Chen Xiaoguang, deputy director of the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration, told a press conference.
Two vessels from Shanghai, the "Haixun 01" and "Donghaijiu 101," last year took part in the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, with the former playing a key role in the collection and delivery of survey data.
Despite their contribution, the mission provided a worrying insight into Shanghai's and China's maritime rescue capabilities, Chen said.
"In the process of the hunt, we sincerely felt that our rescue ability needed to be improved, at both the city and national level," he said.
"We must continue to upgrade our facilities and apply new technologies to enhance our capabilities."
To that end, the Shanghai Maritime Rescue Center will establish more rescue stations close to major ports and channels around the city.
"Our goal is to make sure that a rescue team can reach any spot on the Huangpu River within 15 minutes of being called," Chen said.
"Teams should also be able to reach any part of the Shanghai section of the Yangtze River within 45 minutes and any area within Chinese territorial waters within 90 minutes," he said.
A number of new docks specifically for rescue ships will be built to help achieve the targets, he said.
