Strengthen Masula Radar station, State urges Centre.

The State government has appealed the Ministry of Defence to strengthen the existing RADAR station at Machilipatnam with their radar technologies in line with the proposed strengthening of defence and coastal security establishments on the Machilipatnam coast.

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, in principle, had agreed to provide about 100 acres land near the Radar station here during his recent meeting with the Ministry of Defence authorities. The Machilipatnam Radar station (Doppler Max (z) technology), one of the 16 such stations in India, was installed in early 1980s and being operated by the Indian Meteorological Department for several weather and cyclone updates up to 250 km range, covering both surface and the sea range.

'The Defence Ministry has been explained the need of expansion of the operations of the Radar station. The State government is waiting for response from it. Meanwhile, nearly 100 acre of land is earmarked for the project in Machilipatnam,' said Excise and B.C. Welfare Minister K. Ravindra. The key defence project – Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Missile Test Launch Facility – that would be set up in Nagayalanka will have to rely on the existing Radar station for weather update and cyclone warnings.

The Defence Ministry's Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE-Bangalore) was expected to play a key role in designing the technologies required for the expansion of the Radar station. The Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar, Multichannel digital receivers, automatic target classification are a few latest radar technologies developed by the LRDE and likely to be preferred for the Machilipatnam project once it is materialised.



THE HINDU