Correct storm forecast unlikely in coming season

The ailing Kalapara weather forecasting station.. PHOTO: STAR

The microwave link and some other vital instruments are malfunctioning and their weather snaps are clumsy, which will make correct forecast impossible in the coming season of storms, an official there told this correspondent.

The microwave link and other instruments were installed in 1985 with a ten-year warranty period, which expired much earlier, he said.

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Foreign experts also declared the microwave link 'unfit for use'.

Several letters were sent to the authorities concerned in Dhaka to replace the old instruments, but to no response yet, he said.

The microwave link was bought from Japan at a cost of Tk five crore and it was installed by Japanese experts.

Physical facilities for the radar station was built in 1967 on eight acres of land and the station started functioning in 1976 with Russian instruments.

But it did not function properly. Instruments were brought from Japan and installed. Those were functioning well but most of those have become old, he said.

On the other hand, the building housing the radar station is without renovation for long. Plasters often fall from roofs and walls. During wet season, rain water trickles through the roof at some places. Condition of staff quarters is also the same.

Another sources said that the government has decided to shift the radar station to Satkhira.

The government can renovate the existing station at lesser cost, officials at the Kalapara radar station said.