Journal Article

Necessity of ‘two time zones

Yadav, S., Sharma, Lakhi, Bhardwaj, T., Panja, S., Sharma, N., Agarwal, A., Thorat, P., Arora, P., Olaniya, M. P., Kandpal, P., Senguttuvan, T. D., Ojha, V. N., De, S., Aswal, D. K.

2018

Overview

A strong demand of a separate time zone by northeast populace has been a matter of great debate for a very long period. However, no implementable solution to this genuine problem has yet been proposed. The CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, CSIR-NPL (the National Measurement Institute, NMI, of India and custodian of Indian Standard Time, IST) proposes an implementable solution that puts the country in two time zones: (i) IST-I (UTC + 5 : 30 h, represented by longitude passing through 82°33′E) covering the regions falling between longitude 68°7′E and 89°52′E and (ii) IST-II (UTC + 6 : 30 h, represented by longitude passing through 97°30′E) encompassing the regions between 89°52′E and 97°25′E. The proposed demarcation line between IST-I and IST-II, falling at longitude 89°52′E, is derived from analyses of synchronizing the circadian clocks to normal office hours (9 : 00 a.m. to 5 : 30 p.m.). This demarcation line passes through the border of West Bengal and Assam and has a narrow spatial extension, which makes it easier to implement from the railways point of view. Once approved, the implementation would require establishment of a laboratory for ‘Primary Time Ensemble – II’ generating IST-II in any of the north-eastern states, which would be equivalent to the existing ‘Primary Time Ensemble-I’ at CSIR-NPL, New Delhi.

• Publisher: Current Science Association
• Subject: GENERAL ARTICLES