The BMC will invite an expression of interest (EOI) from companies to conduct cloud seeding in Mumbai. Since October last year, the city has been witnessing poor air quality. So, the firm meeting the civic tender conditions will be awarded a contract for the next three years, said the civic sources.
The air quality in the city has worsened post-monsoon. So to combat air-pollution, the BMC has undertaken several immediate and long-term measures.
Following the directives of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the civic body is in talks with a Dubai-based company which has expertise in this field. “We will invite expression of interest from a firm with experience of at least seven years with positive results in cloud seeding. The interested company will have to submit their bid between December 4 and 14,” said a senior civic official.
Construction works in the city have been blamed for poor air quality. Considering the last two years' experience, the civic authorities believe that they will have to be ready with a preparedness plan for air pollution mitigation measures every year.
“The city first experienced the problem of air pollution during October-May last year. At that time, we thought it was a temporary thing and would go away. But now pollution is witnessed across Maharashtra. It is an effect of climate change. So, the successful bidder will be awarded a contract to conduct cloud seeding for the next three years," said sources from the environment department.
Cloud seeding is the process of spraying either dry ice (or more commonly silver iodide aerosols) into the upper part of clouds with the help of an aircraft to try to stimulate the precipitation process and form rain. However, the first experiment in 2009 failed to augment water in Tansa and Modak Sagar lakes, where a Rs8 crore experiment was conducted. A similar experiment was carried out in 2012, which too failed.
