Met to feel the heat

Met to feel the heat

Bosky Khanna. Bangalore

Next time you get the 'wrong' weather report from the Met office on Palace Road, blame the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike rather than the weather department.
Palike's road-widening project, once completed, could bring vehicles closer to Met's weather monitoring unit and affect the temperature recordings.
Palike's decision to widen the Palace Road will prove expensive to many commercial establishments, including Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) office. According to Palike's earlier plan, which was approved by IMD in April 2006, BBMP was to acquire 6.35 metres from the IMD compound wall and footpath. But at 8.30pm on Thursday, Palike officials, without permission, demolished a part of IMD's compound wall and marked off 9 metres from the campus. IMD director A Muthachami said, "The officials walked in at 8.30 last night, demolished a part of the compound wall and marked the road, without permission. Earlier, following orders from our headquarters, we had given BBMP permission to occupy 2.5 metres of our campus. This was approved by BBMP in their letter in April 2006. Now they claim to have the permission to extend up to 15 metres in width. Without showing us the relevant records, they are saying this detail will be explained four months after the road construction is completed.''
IMD officials tried in vain to contact Palike officials on Wednesday and Thursday. IMD director was denied meeting with BBMP special commissioners and commissioner.
"BBMP officials sent us back saying they were either in meetings or on leave," an IMD source said.
BBMP chief engineer said, ``We are not taking extra space, but only following the route plan. We are taking 6.5 metres of IMD area. There is, however, a possibility of miscommunication from my officials to IMD which will be reviewed.''