The disaster management department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to add 60 automatic weather stations to the 60 that already exist in the city. A BMC official said, “The National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) had suggested installing 97 additional automatic weather stations, which will help one obtain local weather data, mainly rainfall. In 37 places it is not possible to set up stations due to technical reasons. Some places have swampy land and other sites have security issues. So we settled on 60 places.”

The official added, “We have invited tenders for this. We are trying to complete the tender process and start these stations before the coming monsoon. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 17.33 crore. The contractor will set up the stations and maintain them for three years as well as the disaster management portal.