DWR may shut down due to non-payment

By Kaushik Bhattacharya :

The company, providing service without payment for the last six months, has finally wound-up their business on Monday

Central India’s one and only Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) that was installed in Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport, Nagpur is on a high risk of breakdown due to non-payment to the company which was responsible for its power supply and infrastructure maintenance. The DWR comes under the jurisdiction of Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), Nagpur. The radar provides weather data of Vidarbha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatti-sgarh region. “The functioning of the radar depends on its power supply and the company that takes care of the building maintenance and power supply stopped its service due to non-payment,” informed a source to The Hitavada.

The company, providing their service without payment for the last six months, has finally wound-up their business on Monday. As per the source, “Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had to pay an amount of Rs 40 lakh to the company for their service which is still pending as per their Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC).” DWR is known for predicting very fast evolving weather systems like thunderstorm, cyclones and cloudbursts. The radar is essential for nowcast which provides weather details for the next three hours. The DWR since its inception in February 2011 had been non-functional ample of times including very long stretches for over a year and a few months together in 2014 and 2016 for various reasons.

This time the risk of shut down is once again looming over it. “The power supply is most essential part of its working. There are more than a dozen of 6 tonnes Air Conditioners working 24x7 to keep the temperature cool inside the radar system. Similarly, powerful generators will also stop working now,” said the source. Brajesh Kumar Kanaujiya, Scientist C and In-charge of DWR denied any such threat to the radar. When The Hitavada checked the current status of the DWR on RMC’s website, it was found that the DWR was non-functional and the website was showing ‘DWR Unserviceable’.

According to Kanaujiya, “Due to some mechanical issue, DWR is not working for a few days now and the company which takes care of its technical matters is unable to provide service because of the nation-wide lockdown.” The DWR was made in China and procured through SGS Weather and Environment Systems and uses American Technology. It can generate information of 1 km to 8 km height from earth surface in a radius of 500 km. DWRs are also useful in collecting extreme weather systems and hence are very important in the present season. In the last few years, the weather prediction of IMD improved drastically and it is happened due to DWR. The radar also helped to reduced the dependency to gather weather data from other organisations and systems.