Celebrating 147th Foundation Day of India Meteorological Department (IMD) in New Delhi, four Doppler Weather Radars each in  Leh, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai was inaugurated by Minister of State (Independent Charge), Earth Sciences, Dr Jitendra Singh on January 15.

Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, RK Mathur virtually attended the inauguration of the four Doppler Weather Radars and thanked MoS Dr Jitendra Singh and IMD for providing the facility of Doppler Weather Radar at Leh.  R K Mathur stated that the radar and the establishment of a Meteorological Centre at Leh would provide great service to the people of Ladakh.

He stressed the need for decentralised and detailed information for every valley due to the different weather patterns in each valley of Ladakh. He also urged the need for decentralised weather information covering at least the major aviation routes in Ladakh and timely input by IMD for internal flying of fixed-wing planes or helicopters within Ladakh. He also highlighted the need for more weather forecasts, especially in cases of travel to areas such as Nubra, Kargil and Drass in helicopters.

L-G further informed the confidence, the people of Ladakh have in the weather-related information provided by IMD and appreciated the weather predictions made by IMD in a cold desert and fragile eco-sensitive zone such as Ladakh. He also sought support from MoS Dr Jitendra and IMD to provide more decentralised weather information about Kargil where the construction of the Zoji La tunnel is currently underway. He also requested MoS Dr Jitendra Singh to install a Doppler Weather Radar at Kargil as the Srinagar-Kargil road would become an all-weather land route in the coming years.