India’s first  seismic research and monitoring centre will be built at Satara, Maharashtra, at a cost of around Rs.400 crore (Rs.four billion).
Laying the foundation stone for the mega-project spread over 124 acres at Hajarmachi, union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Vilasrao Deshmukh said the centre would be equipped to monitor and record seismic activities at a depth of eight km below the earth’s surface.
The centre would also carry out research to ascertain whether there is any link between earthquakes and water storage reservoirs, Deshmukh said.
The centre is in close proximity to one of the oldest and largest irrigation projects in India, Koyna Dam and Karad in the same district (Satara), which is considered an earthquake prone region.
Incidentally, Satara is a neighbouring district of Ratnagiri where the 9,900-MW Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project is coming up amidst fears of heightened seismic activities.
Deshmukh said independent weather centres would be set up in each district in the state to provide accurate information on climatic conditions using the most advanced scientific technology available in the world.
Besides Mumbai and Nagpur where Doppler Radar systems are installed, a similar system is being planned for Aurangabad to provide accurate information on the weather to farmers on their mobile phones, Deshmukh said.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan urged the need to set up research centres to study groundwater resources for ensuring adequate drinking and irrigation water supply.
Chavan said this was necessary since only 17 percent of the state was irrigated naturally and it was imperative to increase this especially since the groundwater levels had depleted drastically in the state.
Earlier Thursday, the Deshmukh also laid the foundation stone for a Cloud Physics Lab at Mahabaleshwar hill-station in Satara district which would study the rainfall patterns in the state which has been experiencing very heavy rains in some areas and drought in some pockets.