Friday, June 30 2006 17:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Prospects of a good rainfall, particularly in drought-prone areas of central India, look bright thanks to improving southwest monsoon conditions and Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan can also expect a bounty from the skies.

"The southwest monsoon conditions have improved and the outlook for the next week is good, mainly for central India. With low pressure building up in the Bay of Bengal, we can expect good rainfall in central India in the next three days," a senior India Meteorological Department (IMD) official told sources.

"The monsoon has made good progress in the last week covering more parts of northwest India, including Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Conditions are favourable for more parts of northwest being covered within the next 48 hours," the official said.



Though the summer monsoon has failed to keep the normal June 29 date in Delhi and surrounding areas, the official said due to westerly disturbances in the Himalayan region, most parts of northwest India received more than normal rainfall in June.

While Punjab received 49.6 mm of rainfall in June as against the normal of 34.6 mm - an increase of 43 percent; Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi together received 44.7 mm of rains a 25 percent increase over the normal 35.7 mm.

Delhi alone received 126 percent more rainfall than the normal in June.

"The rainfall in these regions was however due to western disturbances and not the monsoon system. Chances are that in the coming week, there will be good monsoon wind flows and rains in central India and possibly in the northwest region also," the official said.



IMD data shows that from June 1-June 28, cumulatively there has been 21 percent shortfall in the southwest monsoon rainfall with only seven out of 36 meteorological sub-divisions having received excessive rains, while 16 received normal rainfall.



Andaman and Nicobar, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, western Madhya Pradesh, Kutch, Marathwada, Telangana, coastal Karnataka and Kerala are among regions that received deficient rainfall in the first four weeks of the summer monsoon that lasts four months till September end.



Eastern Madhya Pradesh with 79 percent shortfall in monsoon rains leads among regions that have been hit by scanty rains. The others include Chhattisgarh and Vidarbha, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is touring Friday to study the plight of debt-ridden farmers.

The southwest monsoon accounts for 80 percent of the rainfall in India, where two-thirds of the land is dependent on rain-fed irrigation. It is very critical for the health of India's farm sector that contributes 24 percent to the GDP and provides employment to over 60 percent of the population.