India Meteorological Department (IMD) is set to go more hi-tech in North-East. Come New Year and the department will extend its technological base further by procuring 14 doppler radars for the region.

It also plans to set up 270 surface observatories and eight microwave radiometers. Further, the 19 heliports in the north east will also have dedicated surface observatories, a facility which does not presently exist. This modernisation of weather services in the remote parts of the country is expected to boost up availability of data, which at the moment is very limited due to hilly topography. Presently, there are two Doppler radars at Agartala in Tripura and Mohanbari in Assam.

Originally envisaged under the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), the weather service was held up since the last four years. It was to be initially funded by the Department of North East Region (DoNER). However, with the project lying dormant with the ministry since 2012, the Earth Sciences Ministry decided to go ahead with a budget of Rs 194 crores. 

Observations received from the north east are not only scant in terms of data, but also largely heterogeneous in nature, due to hilly and varied topography of the region. Hence, the need of the hour is to have more observation systems and a boost in infrastructure, IMD officials said.

They pointed out that the north east is lagging behind the rest of the country, with very few RadioSonde And RadioWind Observatories in comparison to the rest of the country. These systems send a balloon in the atmosphere twice a day to check humidity, wind patterns and temperature.

Meanwhile, similar requests for proposals are also under process for more doppler radars in north western Himalayas. These are aimed at covering the three states of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.