Tropical Met Institute e-board keeps flashing air quality index for Delhi
Tropical Met Institute e-board keeps flashing air quality index for Delhi The electronic display board at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology has been at it for 18 days.
The electronic display board at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) on Pashan Road flashes the air quality index for hold your breath Delhi.
And it's been at it 24 hours a day for 18 days.
The board has not been providing any information about the city for two-and-a-half weeks now, not even the much-discussed temperatures of recent days. The city has been seeing the mercury rise up to 42 C this summer.
Test board for CWG
IITM authorities said the electronic display was just a testing board for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
"It will continue like this for the next one week," said Dr J R Kulkarni, senior scientist at IITM. "We have mentioned at the end it is a testing board.
This is a prestigious project for us and we are on the verge of completing it soon. The pre-testings have been successful."
Dr Gurphan Beig, senior scientist in charge of the SAFAR (System of Air quality Forecasting and Research) that's responsible for the electronic board, said: "Of the total five testing boards, one is in Pune for monitoring it to see it remains functional 24 hours a day.
We normally use it to display Pune's weather forecast. It will be back on display after we complete the tests next week."
Beig added that the Rs 5 crore project was an IITM initiative and had got recognition from UNO and WMO for developing such systems in third world countries.
"The project was begun under the Ministry of Earth Sciences and is the first project of its kind in India," he said.
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