HYDERABAD: Even as the low pressure intensified in the Bay of Bengal and climate turning out favourable, the State Government started the cloud-seeding operations for the year 2009. Agriculture Minister N Raghuveera Reddy flagged off the 120-day cloud-seeding operations at Begumpet Airport here today.
Speaking on the occasion, he said that the cloud-seeding operations will be taken up in 12 rain shadow districts of Anantapur, Kadapa, Kurnool, Chittoor, Mahaboobnagar, Karimnagar, Medak, Nellore, Rangareddy, Nalgonda, Prakasam and Guntur. The officials are establishing two radars one each at Hyderabad and Anantapur where the Anantapur radar will start functioning by the this month end.
The cloud-seeding operations are being taken up at a cost of Rs 25.4 crore by the Bangalore-based Agni Aviation Consultants.
The Centre for Atmospheric Sciences and Weather Modification Technologies at the JNTU-Hyderabad will be the monitoring agency. The officials introduced additional technologies for the operations like monitoring of aerosols through satellite data, dissemination of information about the seeded areas to mandal level on the same day of seeding, and identification of moisture deficient areas.