BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday reiterated the demand of the State Government for installation of radars at Balasore and Sambalpur at the earliest for tracking and monitoring real time weather forecasting.
The decision for installation of four doppler weather radars in Odisha, which is disaster prone, was taken by the Centre in 2006, the Chief Minister said in a letter to Union Minister for Earth Sciences, Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan. “In the mean time, two radars, one each at Paradip and Gopalpur, have been installed and made operational,” he said.
Referring to an earlier letter written by him to Vardhan on October 17, 2015, in which he had sought the personal intervention of the Union Minister for procurement and installation of the radars at Sambalpur and Balasore, he said the radars are yet to be installed.
The Chief Minister said the opening of doppler radar stations at Sambalpur and Balasore would help to track of local storms/thunderstorms in the northern and western parts of the State and providing real time weather forecast. This would save many lives, he said.
Naveen requested the Union Minister to issue appropriate instructions for procurement and installation of the radars at the earliest.