Artificial rains through cloud seeding: BMC gets response from four bidders

Meanwhile, civic officials said that the BMC administration has decided to extend the deadline by one week to attract more interested bidders.

The civic body on December 1 had invited an Expression of Interest (EoI) inviting all the firms around the world who have licensed authorization for carrying out artificial rains through cloud seeding.

The BMC’s move came weeks after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that if the city’s air quality worsens then artificial rains could be carried out to improve the quality.

Initially the final date for bid submission was December 14. Civic officials told Express on Thursday that out of the four firms, three are Bengaluru-based companies while one of them is based in Navi Mumbai.

“We have decided to extend the tender so that we have more players participating in the bid, as a result the cost would also be competitive and we would be able to award the work orders to the lowest bidder in place,” said an official.

The revised date of the new deadline is December 22.

Civic officials also said that the BMC will carry out an assessment study of this project before implementing it.

Cloud seeding was carried out in Mumbai on 2009 by the Water Supply department following inadequate rainfall in the catchment area of Tansa Lake, which is one of the seven lakes that supply water to the city.

On December 3, in an interview with The Indian Express, professor Maninder Agarwal from IIT-Kanpur said that the cost of cloud seeding is around Rs 1,00,000 for every square km of clouds seeded.

“The contractor will be paid money on the basis of sorties he carries out in his aircraft, the contract will be of three years and during this period seeding could be carried out whenever it is required in Mumbai,” the official said.

Cloud seeding is the process of spraying salt mixtures in clouds from the air that would result in condensation of the cloud and eventually cause rainfall, which then washes away the suspended pollutants that lingers in the atmosphere, in a similar way how natural rainfall carries out the process of natural cleansing of the environment.