Integrated flood warning system to be extended to Kolkata: Harsh Vardhan

The Integrated Flood Warning Systems developed for Mumbai and Chennai to cater to the needs of coastal cities will be extended to Kolkata, Earth Sciences Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday.

Vardhan, who is also the Science and Technology Minister, said not only has the percentage of women contributing to science education at the school level increased significantly, but the percentage of women in government laboratories has also increased.

In order to further improve the situation, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) is increasingly boosting its interventions for the participation of women in S&T at multiple levels through various new schemes, Vardhan said.

"The Integrated Flood Warning Systems developed for Mumbai and Chennai are city-specific prediction systems to cater the needs of coastal cities which will be extended to Kolkata.

"For states like Assam and Bihar that have river-based floods, the Central Water Commission generates flood warning based on the rainfall forecast provided by IMD," Vardhan said.

He was addressing the sixth episode of the Sunday Samvad.

Sharing an update on the demonstration plant developed by CSIR's Indian Institute of Petroleum and GAIL in Dehradun that he inaugurated in 2019, the minister said it can produce about 800 litres of BS-VI quality diesel per day from 1,000 kg waste plastics.