Balasore Doppler radar station ‘unlikely’

Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s cyclone-prone district Balasore is unlikely to get a Doppler radar station, as the government of India has not decided about the project, according to a government official.

M N Rajeevan, secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and chairman, Earth System Science Organization (ESSO) informed this to OTV on the sidelines of Tropmet-2016 here on Sunday.
“We have no 100% plan about Balasore project and we are not completely sure about it. Since the clearance from DRDO is involved in the project, we have to wait for that”, said Rajeevan.

He said, “We are in talks with DRDO and very soon we will finalise things for the project”.

The official however mentioned that in a year’s time the Sambalpur Doppler radar project will be completed.

“In Sambalpur, we will be doing it (Doppler radar station) very quickly. We are stuck up in some process in procurement...Once that is cleared, I think it will be completed soon”, he noted.

Talking about the timeline he continued: “I hope, within one year, the project should be commissioned....See even if you place order, it takes one year to get the required project machineries. It takes time because the suppliers start on the orders once it is confirmed and placed”.

It may be noted here that in November last year, the IMD had installed first Doppler radar in Odisha at Paradeep. Officials said the infrastructure of State’s second Doppler radar at Gopalpur is ready. It needs clearance from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) before inception. The radar has been indigenously built by ISRO and BHEL.

Doppler radars help in accurate and timely prediction of cyclonic storms, excessive rainfall, thunderstorms, hailstorms earlier than the traditional radars. It can predict about weather condition in an area of 300 km radius.