New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS) India is acquiring a weather reconnaissance aircraft in order to ensure better forecasting of cyclones, National Disaster Management Authority vice chairman Shashidhar Reddy said here Tuesday.

“India is taking steps to acquire a Hercules C-130J along with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). With this capability, all countries of the Indian Ocean Region would benefit,” said Reddy during a meeting with delegation headed by Razakanaivo Mamy Nirina, head of the disaster prevention and emergency management unit of Madagascar here.
Reddy said the NDMA has decided to address urban flooding as a separate disaster, delinking it from floods which affect a large tracts of rural areas.
He also said the NDMA is implementing the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project in 13 cyclone-prone coastal Indian states/union territories.