North East Space Application Centre
Future planning of all Government Departments in Assam will get a major boost as the State will get required satellite data from the North East Space Application Centre at free of cost. Meanwhile, the State Government has stressed the need for developing infrastructure for boosting connectivity to the South East Asian countries during the meeting of the North Eastern Council (NEC) in Shillong yesterday.
Highly placed official sources told The Assam Tribune that Assam placed the request for allowing it free use of the satellite data of the North East Space Application Centre before the Governing Council of the centre in its meeting held in Shillong yesterday. The meeting, chaired by Union Home Minister, Amit Shah accepted the State’s request and from now on, Assam would be able to use the high resolution satellite data of the centre.
Sources pointed out that with the decision of the Governing Council of the centre, the State would be immensely benefitted. Sources said that with the availability of the high resolution satellite data, the State would be in a much better position to take precautionary measures for dealing with floods. Moreover, such data would be useful for future planning of all the departments of the Government as data regarding change of course of rivers, forest cover, human habitation, creation of new chars etc would be available in high resolution.
The Government would also be able to prepare local specific action plan.
Till now, the State Government has been using data of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) but “we did not get all the data required,” sources said. Sometimes, the Government also procured data from other agencies. But with the availability of free satellite data, the Government would be able to save around Rs 15 crore annually, sources added.
The second major decision taken yesterday was to make the Assam Remote Sensing Application Centre a partner organization of the North East Space Application Centre. Sources said that the decision was taken following a request by the State Government. This will help the Assam Remote Sensing Application Centre to develop its manpower and get access to modern technology. The personnel of the Assam Remote Sensing Application Centre would be immensely benefitted from working along with the experienced people of the North East Space Application Centre, sources pointed out.
Meanwhile, an outreach research station with hostel facilities has also been set up at Barapani and officials of Assam as well as research scholars and students of the State would be able to get training in the centre. This is a major boost in manpower development in the field of space research not only in Assam but also in the other parts of the North East region, sources added.
