The new radar installed at Rangpur will be commissioned next year

The stakeholders are talking about completing the project by April 30 next year. The installation of new Doppler radar at Rangpur Meteorological Office, which has been running with faulty radar for a long time, has returned to speed. So far, the overall progress of the project work has been 92 percent. As a result, Rangpur along with the northern region is opening a new door to know the weather information. The Meteorological Department is also relieved at the progress of the radar installation which started eight years ago.

Next year it will be possible to start using the radar before the scheduled time. If the Doppler radar is installed, the amount of damage will be reduced due to the opportunity to prepare in advance than ever before.

Japan's Shimizu Corporation is overseeing the installation of the radar. Officials are stationed at Rangpur Meteorological Office and are supervising the work at the field level. The equipment of this radar station is supplied by the contracting company Marubini Corporation.

According to those concerned, a Doppler radar was supposed to be set up at the Meteorological Office with a grant from the Japanese government. But on October 3, 2015, a Japanese citizen was killed in Alutari village in Kaunia, Rangpur. After that incident, the Japanese engineers did not come to Rangpur to install the radar due to the lack of security. Then in 2016, seven of the 20 people killed in the attack on the Holy Artisan Cafe in Gulshan, Dhaka, were Japanese nationals. Since then, there has been uncertainty over the deployment of radars due to security concerns.

Later, as per the demands of the Japanese engineers, security was ensured by the construction of police barracks and dormitories at the Meteorological Office and the boundary wall was surrounded by barbed wire fencing. A delegation in charge of their security visited the Rangpur Meteorological Office and expressed satisfaction with the security. After that, when the engineers were preparing to come to Rangpur, the work of setting up the radar was delayed again due to the corona epidemic.

Basically from 2016 to 2021 there was no significant progress in the project. The project of setting up of radars gained momentum from the financial year 2021-22. Officially, the installation of the radar began on March 31, 2023. It was supposed to be built at a cost of about 120 crores with the help of the Japanese government, but later the project cost stood at 150 crores. Most of which is given by the Japanese donor organization JICA.

Meanwhile, according to Rangpur Meteorological Office sources, a meteorological, radar and earthquake observatory was established under the Bangladesh Meteorological Department in 1977-78 fiscal year in College Road Masterpara area of ​​Rangpur city. Conventional radar was installed at the cost of 100 crore rupees in 1999 with the funding of the Japanese government in this weather center built on two and a half acres of land. With the help of this radar, earthquake measurements, disaster forecasts and daily weather conditions were provided to the head office in Dhaka. The life of the radar was 10 years. But in 2007, a flaw was detected in the radar. The efforts of local engineers made it possible to keep the radar active until 2012.