Four doppler radars non-functional: govt

Four doppler radars, of the 21 installed to get accurate weather forecast, are either under maintenance or in temporary breakdown state, the government today said.
In a written response to a question in Rajya Sabha Y S Chowdary, Minister of State in the Ministry of Earth Sciences, said one doppler radar at Delhi (Palam) is under service for the want of spare parts where as doppler radar at Mumbai is under maintenance.
Doppler radars in Karaikal in Tamil Nadu and Paradip in Odisha are in a temporary breakdown state.
There are 21 functional doppler radars of which four are non-operational.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is installing doppler radars at Cherrapunji in Meghalaya, Gopalpur in Odisha, Kochi in Kerala and Goa.
"With an in-house inventory of spares, despite the staff crunch, radar purchases prior to 2006 are maintained by technical staff of the IMD. At times radars remain non-functional due to failure of support system for want of critical spare parts," Chowdary said.
In response to another question, Chowdary said conditions leading to cloud bursts phenomenon are monitored by using satellite data and doppler radars which can be used for nowcasting 3-6 hour forecasts.