BMC may scrap cloud seeding

Sep 04, 2012 - ATEEQ SHAIKH |

Age Correspondent

mumbai

Heavy rains have not only brought relief to Mumbaikars, but also to the civic officials. The BMC officials are now contemplating if they should still go ahead with cloud seeding project to increase water levels in the lakes around Mumbai, as the heavy downpour could bode well for the water levels in lakes.
Municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte on Monday said that the BMC would study the deficit rainfall before taking a final call on the need for cloud seeding. According to him, the rainfall is still unpredictable and therefore, cloud seeding plans cannot be scrapped immediately.
Monsoons have reached its peak only in the last week of August and the rainfall has been better than the entire season put together. This has also resulted in lakes filling up at a much faster rate.
As per the earlier plans, the project was supposed to start on September 1 and go on till September 28, however, the BMC has still not received clearances from the concerned authorities like Directorate-General of Civil Aviation, home department, etc to conduct the cloud seeding experiment.
But Mr Kunte made it evident on Monday that the BMC was rethinking over cloud seeding in the catchment areas of the lakes, and thus it has been deferred.
Earlier this season, due to the very low water levels in all the lakes, the BMC had planned to launch a cloud seeding programme so that Mumbaikars do not face water shortage during summers.
At the time of announcing the project, the cost was pegged at `12 crore, but after issues cropped up with the Israeli company that was to help execute the project, the BMC enlisted the help of a South African firm and the cost was modified to `20 crore.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/186283" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-2de546a0a5f53aa019a00c33795444b3" value="form-2de546a0a5f53aa019a00c33795444b3" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85654115" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>