NEW DELHI: With around 12 crore people expected to attend the Kumbh Mela starting Tuesday, a special weather service which includes setting up of four automatic weather stations (AWS) has been started for the benefit of people visiting the fair. 

Four AWS have been installed at different locations at Allahabad and have been made operational to provide information on the prevailing weather and forecasts for next three days. A mobile van (AWS) has also been made operational.

“The real-time location specific weather information will not only be very helpful for the local and state authorities in efficient management of the event but also benefit the pilgrims by keeping them abreast of the latest weather,” said Union minister Harsh Vardhan.

The observational sites are distributed in all four directions within 5-10 km radius — Allahabad University, Delhi Public School, G.B. Pant Institute of Social Science and Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences.

The Centre also launched a mobile application named ‘Kumbh Mela Weather Servic’  which has been developed to disseminate the live weather information (temperature, humidity, rainfall and winds), as observed at all the above four sites.

The mobile app will also provide weather forecast and warnings, if any, for Allahabad for next three days. The Mobile App will be available for downloading from Google Store.