The Central Development Working Party (CWDP) has approved the project, which will cost around Rs2.5 billion of which Rs60 million will be shared by the Pakistan government, while the remaining Rs2.4 billion will be contributed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as grant in aid, officials at the Met Office said.
“The new system will help monitor wind profile, weather conditions and forecasts for upto one-week,” PMD Director-General Hazrat Mir told The Express Tribune on Wednesday.
Work on the project is likely to be started in December, which will be completed in a 27 months, the official said.
A source in the Met Office, however, claimed that the work on the project could only be started after the JICA secured approval from the Japan government next month.
According to the source, the Japanese government had linked approval of the grant to Pakistan government’s consent in launching the system.
“After taking approval from the government, a site survey has been completed,” an official said adding that the new radar system will have the capability to sense ‘moisture content’ and ‘rain capacity’ in clouds in a radial range of 300 to 400 kilometres.
Five old radars are already functioning in PMD’s different regional offices -- Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Dera Ismail Khan, Mangla and Rahim Yar Khan -- having the ‘sensation range’ of 250 to 300 kilometres radius.
“The existing radars are performing well, however, their repair and maintenance is costly,” another official said.
Pakistan is among those 10 countries which are facing worst climate change impacts in the form of severe rains, floods, droughts, heat and cold waves.
The global warming and climate change has increased summer durations and shrunk winter ones with a frequency in extreme events.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 16th, 2014.
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