New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS) North India’s first Doppler radar will come up in a village near Delhi airport and the work for the installation of this accurate weather prediction machine will begin later this week.
The radar, which has been procured from Beijing Metstar Radar company, will be installed at a height of 16 metres on the top of a building in Shahabad Mohammadpur village in Palam area of the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

“The radar which is at a height of 16 metres will provide short range accurate weather prediction in a nearly 500 km radius,” Fred Brenner, deputy general manager of Beijing Metstar told IANS here.

“This will provide short range prediction. We can predict weather conditions even two hours before it happens. The prediction will be focused,” he said.

There are at least six foreign engineers including two from China who will help the installation.

“The data accumulation and prediction from this radar will start reaching people by the third week of February,” said an engineer involved in the process.

The India Meteorological Department has ordered 12 such radars to be deployed across the country in 2010. Currently, India has four German-made Doppler radars set up at Visakhapatnam, Machhlipatnam, Chennai and Kolkata.

The installation is part of the Rs.1,000-crore modernisation plan of the 135-year-old IMD.