Bellary Steels had a problem. They needed an additional two million gallons of water per day for their existing steel plant and another six million gallons per day for a new mini blast furnace. They turned to the Hyderabad headquartered IN-RIMT which specializes in using remote sensing and other modern tools for environment and resource management. We have provided sustainable water management plans, using surface and ground water sources, to several customers, says Dr. P Subba Rao, Managing Director of the company.

Remote sensing and aerial photogrammetry have many advantages, including speed, accuracy, good resolution and synoptic views of large areas, he points out. The Department of Space not only had established the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites, but also undertook the task of technology and manpower development for using the digital data beamed down by the satellites. But the existing governmental agencies could not cope with the load and the DoS launched an entrepreneurial programme for developing capability in the private sector, according to Dr. Subba Rao.

Since its inception in April 1991, the company has completed 650 projects for various State and national agencies. The company has its hands full at the moment with another 50 projects, says Dr. Subba Rao. The company did Rs. 6 crores worth of business in the last financial year (2000-01).

Although much of its work has been for governmental agencies, companies are beginning to turn to remote sensing for resource location and environmental planning. Last year it used remote sensing methods to locate chemical grade limestone for the Tata Chemicals plant at Mithapur in Gujarat and repeated the exercise recently for Reliance Petroleum Limited. It also mapped soils, land capability, irrigability, run-off potential, lithology and ground water potential so that Tata Chemicals could help villagers around their plant with watershed and land management. It has just completed a project for wetland and coastland mapping which will be input for the environmental impact assessment and environment management plan required by Reliance for its proposed petrochemical complex at Motikhavdi in Jamnagar district.

Large scale mapping for urban development has been done for several towns in Tamil Nadu. It recently completed a project for the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority for an integrated resource analysis and development plan for Bangalore district.

IN-RIMT has established technical collaborations with several overseas organizations, including Geo space Satellitenbilddaten of Germany, Jodian Systems and Software of the U.S., and Geocomp Technology and Adam Technology of Australia. The company wants to acquire its own aircraft and crew for aerial photography.

Dr. Subba Rao himself worked for about 15 years for the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) before taking voluntary retirement to start IN-RIMT. Many of the company's senior staff members have also worked for ISRO, such as Mr. D. V Raju, former Deputy Director at NRSA who now heads IN-RIMTs Hyderabad unit and Dr. Baldev Sahai, who was Deputy Director of the Space Applications Centre and heads the newly opened Ahmedabad wing of IN-RIMT.

ISRO helps IN-RIMT in many ways. ISRO provided a Certificate of Recognition so that users could be sure that the company had the technical competence it claimed. The company uses the computer facilities established by ISRO - on payment, of course. In addition, there is constant interaction between the IN-RIMT scientists and ISRO, adds Mr. Subba Rao.