The Tripura government on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding with the North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC) in Meghalaya’s Shillong for 21 projects including disaster management and resource mapping.

The MoU was signed by the director of NESAC, SP Agarwal and the secretary of Science, Technology and Environment, Pradip Kumar Chakravarty.

Centre has already approved 20 of the 21 projects as part of the promotional and transfer of technology to develop capacity building as well as resource making, said Chakravarty.

The projects that were approved include resource mapping of agriculture, horticulture, forest, land revenue and disaster management.

According to Chakravarty, resource mapping holds the key to formulate proper planning and coordination and the concerned departments will benefit from it.

He said, “We are in the process of preparing resource mapping of patta lands allocated under the Forest Dwellers’ Right Act. It will be beneficial to undertake any project be it agriculture or horticulture or anything else. Plans can be chalked out based on the availability of land and its present status.”

Early warning systems for earthquakes, floods and landslides will be developed in the state in collaboration with NESAC which will be beneficial as Tripura is a disaster-prone state, he added.

Chakravarty further said, “Early warning system is important to mitigate any disaster. We will work together with NESAC to develop an early warning system so that the state could predict any disaster well before it takes place.”

The Tripura space application centre will also be empowered to help cater to future needs, he mentioned.