Delhi conducts successful trial for artificial rain; 1st cloud seeding likely on Oct 29
New Delhi (PTI): Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Thursday said the city is set to witness its first-ever artificial rain through cloud seeding as preparations for the ambitious pollution-control initiative have been completed.
A successful trial of the project was conducted earlier in the day in the Burari area, Gupta said in a post on X.
"For the first time in Delhi, preparations have been completed to induce artificial rain through cloud seeding, marking a significant technological milestone in the capital's fight against air pollution. Experts on Thursday successfully conducted a trial test in the Burari area.
"According to the weather department, cloudy conditions are expected on October 28, 29, and 30. If the weather remains favourable, Delhi is likely to witness its first artificial rain on October 29," her post read.
"This initiative is not only technologically historic but also establishes a scientific approach to combating pollution in Delhi. The government aims to clean the capital's air and balance its environment through this innovation," Gupta said.
Officials said that during the trial in Burari, small amounts of silver iodide and sodium chloride, used to induce artificial rain, were released from an aircraft, but there was limited moisture in the air -- less than 20 per cent.
Cloud seeding typically requires a moisture level of around 50 per cent, which meant no rainfall occurred in the area.
In its report on the test run, IIT-Kanpur said, "This flight served as a proving mission to assess the capabilities for cloud seeding, the readiness and endurance of the aircraft, the functionality of the seeding equipment and flares, and the coordination among all involved agencies."
"There is no evidence of any precipitation, as the cloud cover was minimal and the moisture content was well below 15 per cent," the report added, noting that specially designed flares were used to release both silver iodide and sodium chloride.
Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa thanked Gupta and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their support in ensuring timely approvals for the project.
"Today, a trial seeding flight was conducted from IIT Kanpur to the Delhi area via Meerut, Khekra, Burari, Sadakpur, Bhojpur, Aligarh, and back to IIT Kanpur. Cloud seeding flares were fired between Khekra and Burari and over the Badli area using pyrotechnics," Sirsa said in a post on X.
He added that the flight served as a proving mission to assess the cloud-seeding system's capabilities, aircraft endurance and coordination among all participating agencies.
The cloud-seeding project, jointly developed by IIT-Kanpur and the Delhi government, aims to explore artificial rainfall as a method to reduce particulate-pollution levels in the city during the post-Diwali smog season.
Delhi's much-awaited artificial rain experiment was supposed to be conducted on July 4, but was postponed.
Last month, the Delhi government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IIT-Kanpur for five cloud-seeding trials, which are expected to be conducted in northwest Delhi.
The project, approved by 23 departments, including the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), aims to explore whether artificial rain can be a viable solution to tackle rising pollution levels during the winter.
Funds have already been transferred to the IIT-Kanpur, which will deploy its own aircraft for the operation. According to a DGCA order, the activity will be carried out under visual flight rules, and only after obtaining clearances from state and local authorities.
The cloud-seeding operations are authorised between October 1 and November 30, and will follow strict safety, security and air traffic control guidelines.
Permission has been granted under rule 26(2) of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, allowing the IIT-Kanpur's Department of Aerospace Engineering to conduct the activity using a Cessna 206-H aircraft (VT-IIT).
The project is being conducted in coordination with experts from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, and the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The Delhi Cabinet approved a proposal on May 7 to conduct five cloud-seeding trials at a total cost of Rs 3.21 crore.
However, the exercise faced repeated delays due to unfavourable weather conditions and the onset of the southwest monsoon, with deadlines pushed back from May-end and early June to August, September, and most recently, the second week of October.
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Indigo cancels 67 flights from multiple airports due to bad weather, operational issues
Mumbai (PTI): Domestic carrier IndiGo on Thursday cancelled 67 flights from multiple airports due to "forecasted" bad weather and operational reasons, according to the airline's website.
Of the 67 cancelled flights, only four were for operational reasons, and the rest were due to "forecasted" bad weather at various airports, including Agartala, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Varanasi, Bengaluru, among others, as per the website.
Aviation regulator, DGCA, has announced the period between December 10 and February 10 next year as the official fog window this winter.
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As part of the DGCA fog operations (CAT-IIIB) norms, airlines have to mandatorily roster pilots who are trained to operate in low-visibility conditions, as well as deploy a CAT-IIIB-compliant aircraft fleet for such operations.
Category-III is an advanced navigation system that empowers an aircraft to land under foggy conditions.
Category-III-A is a precision instrument approach and landing that enables a plane to land with a runway visual range (RVR) of 200 metres, while Category-III-B helps in landing with an RVR of under 50 metres.
IndiGo, whose operations are under DGCA monitoring after the cancellations of thousands of flights early this month, is already operating a curtailed schedule in compliance with the government's order.
Under its original winter flight schedule, the airline was permitted to operate 15,014 domestic flights per week, or about 2,144 flights per day, roughly six per cent higher than the 14,158 weekly flights it operated during the summer schedule of 2025.
However, after the massive disruptions, which saw the airline cancelling 1,600 flights on a single day on account of new rest norms for pilots, which allow more rest to the pilots, the government cut down the airline's domestic flight schedule by 10 per cent or 214 flights per day.
As a result of that, IndiGo can't operate more than 1,930 flights per day on domestic routes under its current winter schedule.
The Rahul Bhatia-controlled airline cancelled thousands of flights between December 1 and December 9 on account of a lack of proper planning, and crew shortage in implementing the new set of regulations for pilots' duty period and rest, which were put in place from November 1, thereby causing severe hardships to lakhs of air travellers.
Following this, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) formed a four-member panel, comprising Joint DG Sanjay Brahamane, Deputy Director General Amit Gupta, senior Flight Operations Inspector Kapil Manglik, and FOI Lokesh Rampal, with a mandate to identify the root causes of widespread operational disruptions at the Rahul Bhatia-controlled domestic carrier.
The panel, which has already grilled IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer Isidre Porqueras as part of its probe, is expected to submit its report by this week.
Meanwhile, IndiGo, in a travel advisory on X, said, "Low visibility and fog over Bangalore has impacted flight schedule. We are keeping a close watch on the weather and doing our best where you need to be safely, smoothly".
Reacting to the advisory, an aggrieved passenger, in an X post, said, "My flight on December 20 from Bhubaneswar to Ahmedabad got delayed for more than five hours, and today my return flight from Ahmedabad to Bhubaneswar also got delayed more than three hours with the same excuse as bad weather. I am travelling with my senior citizen parents, and this delay is not acceptable. Need proper explanation, along with compensation".
