GPS station for recording seismic waves to come up in Cooch Behar

Kolkata: An initiative has been taken up to set up a GPS station in Cooch Behar to record seismic waves, using which possibility of earthquakes can be assessed.

It may be mentioned that tremors have been felt for quite some time in Cooch Behar but the intensity of the earthquake on Wednesday was more compared to that of the previous cases.

Geological Survey of India (GSI) will set up the GPS centre and the district authorities are extending all support in carrying out the task as early as possible.

It has been learnt that the district authorities are extending all support to initiate the work of setting up the GPS centre in the current year itself and a move has also been made by Kaushick Saha, District Magistrate of Cooch Behar, in this connection.

The land has already been identified and sources said that the GSI authorities have also visited the spot. They have found the plot to be suitable for the project.

There will be an initiative of around Rs 60 lakh to set up the GPS centre and machinery with updated technologies will be brought from Switzerland. The automatic machines will also be sending daily records to the headquarters in Kolkata.

With the help of the machines, the records of seismic waves in Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in Bengal can be compared with the same in certain parts of Assam. It will also help in proper urban planning.

According to the experts, it is not possible to predict the exact time of an earthquake. But with assessment of seismic waves on a regular basis that will be recorded by the machines, the possibility of an earthquake can be assessed.

As many as 35 GPS centres will be set up across the country, out of which 13 have already been set up, including one in Kolkata. The remaining 22 will be set up in phases.