The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is set to roll out the country’s first, much-awaited weather channel early next year, if everything goes according to schedule.

Five leading private channels have come forward with expressions of interest, and IMD Director General Dr Ajit Tyagi has asked for a Request For Proposal (RFP) from them in the next two months to get the channel running by February-March 2009. The idea is to have the channel up before the next monsoon.

The channel will provide information on oceanic movements, temperature and rainfall, as well as warnings about natural disasters. “It will be a private-public partnership and we would be involved with the data collection while the entire funding would come from the private channel,” Tyagi said. “We have got Expressions of Interest from Star News, Zee News, NDTV, INX, Media Content and Communications Service Pvt Ltd.”

With PricewaterhouseCoopers providing the technical inputs, the IMD is ready with the basic plan. “The pilot run will be in February and from March it will be a full-fledged channel,” Tyagi told The Indian Express. Initially, programmes will be telecast for six hours each day.

To be launched as part of the IMD’s plan to modernise and upgrade its stations as well as its communication, forecast and public information systems, the Director General says the channel will on a par with other channels and will help farmers “plan their harvest”.

Allocated Rs 900 crore in the Eleventh Plan, the IMD is set to spend Rs 300 crore on modernisation and upgradation of surface observatory stations, satellite observatory stations and remote sensing centres the first two years, with all the coastal areas of the country brought under the radar network.

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