Bhopal: The country's second master control facility (MCF) of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), proposed to be set up in Bhopal, would enhance its satellite monitoring capability.

Laying the foundation stone of MCF on February 18, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh said with ISRO's increasing activity in space, the MCF-Bhopal would also help the state government in various areas including tele-medicine, ground water resources and maintenance of revenue records.

ISRO chairman Dr K Kasturirangan, who is also the secretary of the Department of Space, said the initial investment in the facility would be about Rs 35 crore, including Rs nine crore for civil works and Rs 26 crore for establishing technical systems.

The MCF-Bhopal will be initially configured with a capability to monitor and control three satellites, he said.

Also, satellite ranging will be done from MCF-Bhopal and MCF-Hassan, the existing facility in Karnataka, to reduce the uncertainty in identifying the exact position of satellite in space.

The improvement in the accuracy will be achieved only if two stations, which are separated by 1,000 kms, do the ranging function simultaneously on a satellite, according to ISRO sources.

The present accuracy figure of five kms will be improved to about 150 metres with MCF-Hassan and MCF-Bhopal doing simultaneous ranging.

PTI