Telangana to tie up with ISRO to keep tabs on water bodies

Hyderabad: A first of its kind water resources monitoring system is set to come into effect in Telangana with the irrigation department joining hands with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and setting up the Telangana Water Resources Information System (TWRIS). The new system will be set up by ISRO's Natio nal Remote Sensing Centre.
Irrigation minister Harish Rao said the department will enter into an agreement with ISRO on August 6 to set up TWRIS.For the first time in India, this system will keep an eye from the sky on state's water resources, he said.
The minister, along with irrigation department special chief secretary SK Joshi, KADA commissioner Dr Malsur, officer on special duty Sridhar Rao Deshpande, on Friday met ISRO's scientific advisor Dr PG Diwakar and other officials to discuss the project details and finalise the plans. Harish Rao said that the system will enable ef fective analysis of water storage, availability, inflows and outflows, among other aspects of irrigation.
ISRO will update the system with new satellite imagery of all water bodies in the state every fortnight. Engineers of the irrigation department and other government officials can use the data provided by the images to plan effective water use. The data can also be used for monito ring the effectiveness of Mission Kakatiya programme.
Harish Rao asked ISRO's Diwakar to train the irrigation department engineers in satellite data analysis.
With regularly updated satellite imagery, the department can effectively monitor bunds, canals, dams and other infrastructure, and take immediate corrective steps and repairs as and when required, he added.