No water, no payment, says BMC

Warns contractors that they will not be paid if the clouding seeding experiment remains unsuccessful; MET says monsoon has reached its end

No water, no payment, says BMC

Warns contractors that they will not be paid if the clouding seeding experiment remains unsuccessful; MET says monsoon has reached its end

Water levels at the Modak Sagar dam have risen in the last 17 days pic/Datta Kumbhar

BMC's standing committee chairman Ravindra Waikar says, "It does not make sense to pay the sanctioned amount to the contractors if the cloud seeding experiments do not yield the desired results."

The BMC allotted two clouding seeding contracts u2014 one to Shantilal Meckoni of Meckoni Enterprises and the other to Bengaluru-based Agni Aviation. Agni Aviation has been awarded the contract of Rs 8 crore by the BMC to carry out the aerial experiment for 60 days, while Shantilal Meckoni will be paid Rs 15 lakh for conducting conventional cloud seeding. According to the MET department, the monsoon is retreating.

Whose problem is it?

The absence of a rain gauge in catchment areas has proved to be an obstacle for the BMC to ascertain the success of cloud seeding. In the last 17 days, water levels at Tansa have risen to 144.19 million cubic metres, while water levels at Modak Sagar have risen to 186.04 million cubic metres and and Upper Vaitarna to 207.28 million cubic metres respectively. Water levels in Bhatsa have risen to 603.67 million cubic metre. Shantilal Meckoni began the conventional cloud seeding on July 11 but is yet to yield significant results. Twenty operations, for a cost of Rs 15.90 lakh, were scheduled, of which five remain to be finished. Each attempt requires 60 kg of silver iodide.

Till last week, around 42 conventional and 21 aerial cloud seeding experiments were carried out in catchment areas. Waikar says, "We approved both the proposals of cloud seeding believing that it will help increase lake levels in the wake of erratic monsoon this year." But Agni Aviation has already been paid 55 per cent of the fee.

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