PARLIAMENT QUESTION: INSTALLATION OF WEATHER STATIONS
PARLIAMENT QUESTION: INSTALLATION OF WEATHER STATIONS
During last one year, India Meteorological Department (IMD) has installed 3 Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs), (2 C-Band Radars at Raipur and Mangalure and one X-Band DWR at Jorhat, Assam), and 200 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) across India.
The current DWR network of 48 DWRs covers about 92% of the total area of the country and there are some gaps in the DWR coverage over the coastal, hilly, and island regions across the country. To improve the radar monitoring across the Himalayan region, IMD has installed a total of 10 DWRs in the Western Himalayan Region at locations, Leh, Banihal Top, Jammu, Srinagar, Lansdowne, Mukteshwar, Surkanda Devi, Jot, Murari Devi, Kufri, which are operational in real-time. In the eastern Himalayan region, currently, radars are operational at Mohanbari, Cherrapunji, Agartala, Jorhat. In the coastal states, there are 11 radars functioning with west coast located at Thiruvananthpuram, Kochi, Mangalore, Mumbai, Veravali, Mumbai (Juhu), Mumbai (Panvel), Mumbai (Kalyan), Mumbai (Vasai), Goa and Bhuj, and the East coast with 8 radar with Chennai, Gopalpur, Paradip, Karaikal, NIOT Chennai, Machilipatnam, Visakhapatnam, Sriharikota (ISRO).
There have been no major delays. However, in a few cases, some delays have occurred due to the non-availability of technically suitable space and related facilities. Currently, there is no proposal to use the data available from private or academic networks.
The current DWR network covers nearly 92% of the country’s geographical area. Further, MoES is also coordinating with State Governments on the installation of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) under the “Weather Information Network and Data System” (WINDS) to establish a nationwide network of AWS at block/tehsil levels and Automatic Rain Gauges (ARG) at Gram Panchayat levels to achieve nationwide coverage.
This information was submitted by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Earth Sciences Dr. Jitendra Singh in Rajya Sabha on 12th February 2026.