Maharashtra to set up 2,025 automatic weather stations

Taking the public-private partnerships funding model to the next level, Maharashtra government has decided to set up a network of 2,025 automatic weather stations in the State with the help of private companies.

The State government will soon invite expressions of interest for setting up the Rs 122-crore project.

Each station will cost about Rs 6 lakh and weather parameters such as air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, rainfall and solar radiation will be recorded. The contract also includes setting up of a lab for analysing the weather data.

The data generated by the stations will be used for settling agriculture insurance claims, advising farmers on crop patterns, development of pest and disease forewarning models and rainfall forecast. The company setting up the network will be at liberty to sell the data in the market.

A senior State government official said, “Even within a taluka (sub-district), weather conditions may vary, making it difficult to assess agriculture insurance claims. The present methods of evaluating crop are not adequate, therefore the real-time data from the weather stations will come in handy.”

At present, agriculture department officials along with revenue officials use sampling techniques such as ‘crop cutting experiment' where they take samples of a few fields, which helps them in surveying the crop damage and settling the claims.

The automatic weather stations would be established at 2,025 revenue circles in the State. The government will provide land for setting up the stations.

Similar State-wide weather stations have been established in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The State government has taken help from the Tamil Nadu government for the preparatory groundwork, the official said.