291. Radio requirements.- (1) Every Indian ship, being a passenger ship, and every other Indian ship of five hundred tons gross tonnage or more, shall, in accordance with the rules made under section 296, be provided with a radio installation and shall maintain a radio telegraph service or a radio telephone service of the prescribed nature and shall be provided with such certificated operators and watchers as may be prescribed: Provided that the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, exempt from the obligation imposed by this section any ship or class of ships if it is of opinion that having regard to the nature of the voyage on which the ship or ships are engaged or other circumstances of the case, the provision of a radio installation is unnecessary or unreasonable. (2) The radio installation required under the said rules to be provided for a passenger ship or for any other ship of sixteen hundred tons gross or more shall be a radio telegraph installation; and that required to be provided for a ship of less than sixteen hundred tons gross, other than a passenger ship, shall be either a radio telegraph installation or a radio telephone installation at the option of the owner. | 
