Proper cloud seeding from today afternoon: minister

Cloud seeding will be taken up in a full-fledged manner from Wednesday afternoon, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Minister H K Patil said on Tuesday.

No clouds were seeded on Tuesday because the weather-monitoring radar installed at the GKVK campus was yet to be calibrated - improving accuracy in identifying rain-bearing clouds.

According to sources, installation of two other radars at Gadag and Shorapur are still underway. As a result, cloud seeding in the North Karnataka region may get delayed further. Another aircraft will take off from the Hubballi airport once the radar work is finished. 

The project - known formally as Project Varshadhare - was launched formally on Monday, an event that was marred by delays. The inaugural speeches ate into the aircraft launch schedule and the clouds were gone. Still, the aircraft managed to seed two clouds in the Magadi area, whose results are being analysed. “Of the two clouds that were seeded, we felt one went well. But overall, we weren’t satisfied because the right amount of clouds were not there,” Patil admitted.

“Our experts have told us that far away clouds can be identified only if the radars are fully ready. By Wednesday afternoon, we will finish all the work and take up cloud seeding based on radar inputs,” the minister said.

The aircraft will take off from the HAL airport once the radar calibration is done, RDPR Chief Engineer (Rural Water Supply) Prakash Kumar said. The RDPR department is spending Rs 35 crore on the project, which will go on for 60 days targeting the Cauvery, the Malaprabha and the Tungabhadra river basins. The contractor, Hoysala Projects, will be paid based on the number of hours of flight for cloud seeding, Kumar said.