Jharkhand Space Application Centre will analyse data related to the state’s geography

Ranchi, March 8: The Jharkhand Space Application Centre (JSAC) is set to begin operation from May 1. The centre will gather and analyse data related to the state’s geography with the help of geo-stationary and geo-synchronous satellites.

Besides, the centre will provide assistance to the health and education departments.

The visit of the director of former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) during the tenure of former chief minister Babulal Marandi gave a boost to the project.

“The project will be operational from May 1. The required infrastructure will be established by then,” said the director of the Jharkhand Space Application Centre (JSAC) A.P. Subudhi.

The department has been registered under the Society Registration Act. The space agency has deputed Subudhi, a scientist of ISRO, for a period of three years. “One of the aspects of the project will be tele-education. The idea will be to impart education in the most remote areas of Jharkhand. Television sets will be installed at every village panchayat. Educational programmes, which will be relayed through a satellite, will consist programmes for children as well as youngsters. In the evening the television set can be used to watch entertainment programmes dealing with village folklore,” he said.

“Tele-mapping and tele-medicine are other important proposed features. While the former involves mapping of the topography of the state with a satellite, the latter is a facility through which patients in far flung areas can receive treatment from specialised doctors operating from a regional medical institution like the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims),” Subudhi added. Tele-medicine can be of great help to the rural masses of the state. “We can only work as facilitators. It is the health department, which has to take the initiative to give this innovative concept a desirable shape,” said IT secretary R.S. Sharma.

“Tele-mapping, which is one of the most important aspect of the project, involves various mapping procedures with technical names like wetland-mapping and wasteland-mapping,” said Subudhi. “We plan to install medical equipment in a primary health centre to give a deeper insight into tele-medicine. The equipment will help detect a patient’s ailment. The data will be analysed by a specialist operating from a centralised location like Rims,” he said.

“I have worked with the remote sensing department of Bihar earlier. Although Jharkhand is not as flood prone as Bihar. The lower regions of Jamshedpur got flooded during 1997. The department can do a lot of work in identifying the drought affected and drought prone regions of the state,” said Deepak Srivastav, a scientist working with JSAC.