BENGALURU: While the state cabinet has already approved cloud-seeding project of Rs 91 crore, with Kyathi Climate Modification Consultants bagging the contract, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) have jointly written to Karnataka government offering their low-cost technology for cloud seeding.
While the estimated cost has not yet been worked out for the HAL-IIT-K proposal, state government officials expect it will be much less than the already approved contract.“While HAL did not participate in the tendering process, they along with IIT-K can present the technology to us. It is good to have our own technology, as this also reduces cost of the project with no import expenses,” said H S Prakash Kumar, Chief Engineer, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Department, while speaking on the sidelines of the first International Conference on Cloud Seeding.
“We tied up with HAL as they have their own Dornier aircraft which can fly at higher altitudes. The salts were evaluated by an Israeli expert who said they were superior to commercially available chemicals in the market. The difference is that ours has a higher probability of generating rainfall,” said Manindra Agrawal, Deputy Director of IIT-K.
The cloud-seeding project is being implemented by the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (RDPR) department and the work orders will be issued on Monday. The spraying of chemicals on the clouds will go on for 90 days.
Krishna Byre Gowda, Minister of RDPR said: “The state has been reeling under drought for the last 13 to 14 years. When we did cloud seeding in 2017, rainfall increased by 27 per cent, with the areas receiving 2.5 to 5 TMC of rainwater. However, this is not the only solution to mitigating drought but is one among the several mechanisms in our basket.”“It is not an alternative to rainwater harvesting, recharging groundwater or sustainable living,” he added.