Twenty Telemetry Stations to be set up in the North-East to Monitor Seismic Activities

Union Minister of Science and Technology & Earth Sciences, Shri Kapil Sibal has said twenty telemetry stations will be set up in the North East to monitor seismic activities. Disclosing this at a news conference in Guwahati yesterday after a three day tour to Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, he said the India Meteorological Department (IMD) will install two such stations in Nagaland, at Mokokchung and Kohima by June 2007

Shri Sibal also revealed that IMD will establish 50 Automatic Weather Stations in the North-East by March next year. Among these, 13 stations will be located in Arunachal Pradesh and eight in Nagaland and will be installed by end of December this year.

Shri Sibal disclosed that the possibility of setting up of three Doppler weather radars for weather forecast in the North-East will be investigated. These radars are expected to be commissioned in next year.

The Minister said the Government will encourage utilization of bamboo based engineered material in good housing and construction programmes. National Mission on Bamboo Application (NMBA) under Department of S&T will support the industries of bamboo prefabricated structures for public domain buildings, especially for the school construction programme and for hospitals and dispensaries linked with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) or other Government of India funded programmes.

He said that the bamboo pre-fabricated modular structures in high altitude areas can withstand temperatures till –300C, zone V Seismic loading and static snow load of 3 feet and high velocity winds upto 100 km per hour. Such demonstrative pre-fabricated modular structures in high altitude areas at forward locations of the Indian Army completed in August this year in Tawang area.

The Minister suggested that the State Governments of the North East should review the access and regulatory regime for bamboo including felling & transportation and of the fiscal and incentive regime for value added products. He said the NMBA will support an actionable study of the existing provisions. He said the abundant resource of bamboo sector should be developed for more employment opportunities and strengthening the economy.

Shri Sibal said a Bamboo Technology Park will be established at Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh and it will be fully funded by the Centre. He also announced a bio-resources Mapping programme through CSIR for Arunachal Pradesh.

In the Health Care Sector Shri Sibal said that Department of Science & Technology (DST) will support the setting up 33 Iron Removal plants in Nagaland and 15 such plants in Arunachal Pradesh in the next year for providing clean drinking water. The technology developed by the Central Glass & Ceramics Research Institute (CGCRI), Kolkata, uses membranes which provide physical separation between product water and contaminants.

The DST has also taken up a programme of induction of 150 nano-membrane filters in Nagaland and 350 such filters in Arunachal Pradesh, at Ruksin and Dirang to provide clean drinking water.

The Minister has since returned to New Delhi.

Source : Press Information Bureau
Date : October 16, 2006