(a) whether the Government proposes to set up Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) in all
districts in the county during the current Five Year Plan;
(b) if so, the details thereof, location-wise and State-wise;
(c) the details of funds allocated for the said purpose made so far;
(d) the details of targets fixed and achieved so far, and
(e) the steps taken by the Government to achieve the remaining targets for the current
plan period?
MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT,MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, MINISTER OF
EARTH SCIENCES AND MINISTER OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY(SHRI KAPIL SIBAL)
(a) Yes Madam.
(b) During the X Plan, a network of 125 Nos of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) was
commissioned by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and this network is to be expanded
with additional 550 Nos of AWS during the current XI plan so as to cover all districts of
the country under the IMDs Modernization Phase-I. Details of the planned state-wise AWS
network are presented in Annexure-I.
(c) An amount of Rs. about 25 crore is allocated for the establishment of the AWS
network.
(d)-(e) Out of 550 Nos of AWS planned, 395 Nos of AWS are commissioned as of now. Currently,
about 494 Nos of AWS stations are regularly reporting hourly weather data in real time to the
IMDs weather monitoring and forecasting services. A grant of Rs. 14 crores is utilized for
the AWS network establishment so far.
Although, the AWS network establishment was to be over by August 2010, it will be
fully feasible to complete by the end of December, 2010.