Monsoon almost here,but BMC website still under cloud

Despite installing automatic weather stations (AWS) at 29 locations across the city that directly feed weather updates to the site,the website is still inactive. Citizens trying to find details about weather forecast and traffic situations at the time of monsoon are ending up getting a broken link when they try to log on to the site. While monsoon has not arrived full fledged in the city,heavy showers lashed major parts of it last Friday,disrupting rail and road traffic.

While officials in the disaster management cell maintained that the website will be soon made functional,an official in charge of coordination with the IT firm appointed to maintain the site said that the BMC has cancelled the contract of the firm that was appointed for the past two years,and has failed to reappoint another technical support firm this year.

“The firm that was appointed was removed by the BMC but we do not have a replacement yet. We are not capable of maintaining the website ourselves and unless a software company is appointed,the site cannot function,” said the official. A top official from the disaster management cell said they are racing against time to make the site functional by mid-June.

Moreover,while the AWS are functional across the year,the site will be functional only during the four months of monsoon. Arguing that the website is necessary only during the monsoon,BMC officials said that off-season rainfall is very rare and the site need not to be active apart from the official monsoon period in the country between June 1 and September 30.

Through the monsoon website citizens can access localised rainfall data,high tides heights,tide timings,along with details of areas waterlogged,if any,all updated every 15 minutes with the help of the AWS.

The civic administration has set up high-tech AWS at 29 places across the city at municipal installations such as fire stations,municipal ward offices etc. since 2006. With the help of these stations,rainfall data could be received every 15 minutes. The website also provides the hotline numbers,108 and 1916,along with ward-wise contact details of the disaster management cell.