The next time it rains and you find yourself wondering which route to take to avoid floods, you may be able to access real-time information on your phone. The ‘Bengaluru Megha Sandesha’, a mobile app, promises to provide real-time information and alerts on weather, rainfall, flooding in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) jurisdiction. It was launched by Revenue Minister R. Ashoka on Saturday.
The app provides data on three main modules – live weather, forecast, and safe routes. While live weather and forecast tabs provide location based information on prevailing temperature, rainfall, wind speed and direction, the safe route tab provides information on live rainfall and road inundation on all probable routes (location to destination).
Along with the app, a web portal ‘Varunamitra’ was also launched.
The bilingual app, in Kannada and English, has been developed by the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Management Centre (KSNDMC) in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bengaluru.
Mr. Ashoka said that the app provides data from 100 Telemetric Rain Gauges (TRG), 12 telemetric weather stations (TWS) and water level sensors installed and maintained at various locations. “Both, the app and the web portal, will help people and civic agencies to tackle rain related issues,” he said.
An emergency tab will enable citizens to connect with BBMP emergency control rooms. Safety tips on Dos and Dont’s during rain and flooding will be provided, a KSNDMC official said.
Varunamitra portal
The government also launched ‘Varunamitra’, a dedicated web portal for weather information in BBMP areas. It will also provide details on flood vulnerable areas in each zone. It has a real-time weather dashboard that provides zone wise weather information, location specific rainfall and inundation, and colour coded information on flood severity.