Three leading television networks are in the race to launch India’s first dedicated weather channel, expected to be on air in the first quarter of next year.
India Meteorological Department (IMD), which plans to launch the weather channel through public-private partnership, has shortlisted four channels, run by the three networks for the key initiative of the government. “We have shortlisted four channels for the project, one of which will be finalised soon,” IMD Director General Ajit Tyagi told PTI here. IMD, which has weather stations all across the country, will provide raw data on the climatic conditions to the private party, which inturn will telecast it after making value addition, he said.
To begin with, the weather channel would be on air for six hours every day and is expected to function round-the-clock in time for the Commonwealth Games, scheduled to be held in the capital in 2010. The Ministry of Earth Sciences has drawn up plans to issue venue-specific weather forecasts for the Games.
The IMD director general said the channel would air all possible dimensions of weather information in both English and Hindi and IMD has plans to extend the services in regional languages at a later date. “We shall provide all valuable and important information-related weather, be it city or state-based forecast, on daily and weekly basis.
It will also air suggestions for farmers, fishermen and the industry,” another IMD official said.
The process to launch the weather channel was initiated about a year ago.
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IMD has also embarked on a massive modernisation programme of its weather observation and systems in a bid to provide more accurate weather forecast. “The first phase of modernisation of weather observation and forecast process will be completed before monsoon next year,” Tyagi said. The IMD plans to install 12 Doppler Radars, 550 rain guages, 1350 automatic weather stations, four wind profilers across various parts of the country to observe weather patterns.
The data received through these advanced equipment will be processed by supercomputers, which will help in achieving best accuracy level of weather forecasting, Tyagi said. The dedicated channel will be of great help for farmers who can plan their harvest according to the weather, Tyagi said.