Agency report

Bangalore, Jun 8: Travelling to Mysore and back on the BMIC Expressway could also provide you with weather-related data ranging from maximum/minimum temperature to average rainfall, received from the meteorological centre at Sompura. But the data will be related to the expressway.

With this, the meteorological station on the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project expressway promises to be the first private weather monitoring station on a Karnataka highway.

Weather monitoring

The Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Ltd (NICE) that has housed its weather monitoring unit at Sompura, near the Freedom Park, is awaiting approval from the Indian Meteorological Department, Pune, after which it hopes to provide all weather data to anyone who hitherto had to rely on IMD-supplied data.

Says Ashok Kheny, NICE Managing Director, "It's the first of its kind in operation on State highways. We plan to establish more such centres in Mysore, Mandya, Ramanagara and Channapattana".

K V Gopalakrishna, meteorological officer at the NICE weather station, said, "We established the met office with technical guidance from IMD, Bangalore.

All necessary equipment were supplied from IMD, Pune. The first weather recording is made at 8.30 am followed by one at 5.30 pm The data received is then transmitted to the IMD office at Bangalore via phone/fax. A monthly report is also sent to Karnataka State Pollution Control Board."

Range of data

NICE officials say, that after the weather recording centre at the airport and Maharani's College, this the third such centre in the City that could record daily max/min temperature, rainfall received/forecast, humidity levels, monsoon reports, average wind speed and the like.

Gopalakrishna adds the weather centre, built at a cost of Rs 15 lakh, was established as per Ministry of Environment guidelines which require any massive highway project to have a met centre to monitor its impact on the vicinity.

"Once we've similar forecasting centres in Mysore and other places, we could correlate data and provide accurate analysis to highway users across the State. As of now, only data from/on surrounding areas are available.

"For example, the downpour Bangalore received two days ago saw Sompura receive 30.1 mm of rainfall, while the met office here recorded 16 mm rainfall. The concrete jungle that Bangalore has become is evident in the difference in rainfall received," he says.