The Tamil Nadu Water Resources Department (WRD) will procure 1,000 automatic rain gauges (ARG) to get accurate rainfall data from across the state. A senior official told the media that the state government had sanctioned Rs 25 crore from the state disaster risk and mitigation fund for the 1000 ARGs.
The WRD sought the government to increase the project cost as automatic weather stations would have to be installed for the ARGs.
Due to this reason, a proposal worth Rs 85 crore has been proposed to the government. After the fund is released, the tender will be floated to procure ARGs. TN Disaster Risk Reduction Agency is the only authority to initiate the tender process for procuring and installing ARGs.
An official said that it was necessary to submit a detailed project report (DPR) to the government before beginning the tender process and the WRD was preparing it in collaboration with the TN Disaster Risk Reduction Agency.
He said that the state receives rains in two seasons that help replenish its water resources. The southwest monsoon accounts for 35% of the rains while the northeast monsoon accounts for 48%.
He added that the department intends to develop a data collection in phases to acquire reliable figures. He highlighted that they had a plan to procure ARG to upgrade the weather observation network also in Chennai.
