Lok Sabha Question No. 3035 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-19
Subject: Locations for New Radars
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Shri Suresh Kumar Kashyap, Shri Yogender Chandolia

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3035 TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 19 TH  MARCH, 2025

## LOCATIONS FOR NEW RADARS

## 3035.   SHRI YOGENDER CHANDOLIA: SHRI SURESH KUMAR KASHYAP:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has the data regarding the proposed locations for new radars in the country including sites in Himachal Pradesh, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (b) the manner in which their placement be prioritized based on geographical vulnerability to extreme weather events;
- (c) whether  the  Government  has  the  data  regarding  outlined  the  expected  percentage increase  in  forecast  accuracy,  particularly  for  extreme  weather  conditions  such  as cyclones and thunderstorms and if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) the  timeline  for  full  deployment  and  operationalization  of  these  advanced  data collection systems?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a) Yes. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has planned new radars across the country, including one at Lahual & Spiti in Himachal Pradesh. Tentative sites where the radars are planned to be installed are given below:
-  12  no.  of  C-Band  Doppler  Weather  Radars  (DWRs)  tentatively  at  Raipur, Mangalore, Ranchi, Lakshadweep, Malda, Aurangabad, Balasore, Sambalpur, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Rupsi & Port Blair.
-  12  no.  of  X-Band  DWRs  tentatively  at  Pune,  Kolkata,  Purnea,  Varanasi, Wayanad, Bhubaneswar, Dharwad, Lahaul & Spiti, Aligarh (GoUP), Azamgarh (GoUP), Jhansi (GoUP), Lucknow (GoUP).
-  10 no. of X-Band DWRs for North East tentatively at Jorhat, Tezpur, Aizawl, Namsai, Silchar, Imphal, Dimapur, Mandala Top, Central Arunachal Pradesh, & Guwahati.
-  In addition, 53 radars (8 S-Band, 20 C-Band, and 25 X-Band ) are also planned to  be  installed  across  the  country  under  Mission  Mausam  so  that  the  entire country is brought under radar coverage.
- (b) The locations of the DWRs have been arrived upon considering the gap areas in the coverage of the existing DWR network.
- (c) In  addition  to  the  proposed  improvement  in  the  radar  coverage  as  mentioned  above other  observation  systems  like  wind  profilers,    radio  sonde/radio  wind,  microwave radiometers, etc, are also planned under Mission Mausam. Along with the improvement   in the observational network, deployment of high-performance computing  infrastructure,  advanced  Earth  system  models,  integration  of  artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies, etc, under Mission Masuam will  help  improvement  in  forecasts  on  various  timescales,  especially  in  location  specific nowcast (forecast up to a few hours) to short-range forecast up to 3 days. The implementation  of  the  Mausam  Mission  is  likely  to  help  (i)  in  capturing  and monitoring all the weather events happening in the country so that no weather system will go undetected, (ii) improve the frequency of nowcasting extreme weather such as thunderstorms, lightening, strong winds, etc. from 3 hrs. to 1 hr. (iii) Improve the short and medium range weather forecast accuracy by about 5-10%. and (iv) improve air quality   forecasts by about 5-10% in the major metro cities.
- (d) Entire country will be under radar coverage within next 2-3 years.

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