India To Have 2 Time Zones For East And West

New Delhi: The government on Wednesday said it was considering to have two separate time zones for the country. The government mulled the idea after Biju Janata Dal (BJD) member B. Mahtab raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, who highlighted that there was a gap of nearly two hours in the sunrise timings between the eastern and the western parts of the country. He underlined that the sunrise and sunset timings in the north-east region and archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep were different from those of the mainland.

"The sun rises at 4am in Arunachal Pradesh, while the offices open at 10am. The Ministry of Science and Technology had also carried out a study on this in the past," said Mahtab. He claimed that electricity could be saved if the time zone was advanced by half-an-hour and added that only the Centre could take a call on changing the office timings.

The sun rises at 4am in Arunachal Pradesh, while the offices open at 10am. The Ministry of Science and Technology had also carried out a study on this in the past

In 2003, the Ministry of Science and Technology had prepared a report on the amount of energy the country would save if two separate time zones were introduced. Mahtab exhorted the Centre to put the outcome of the said study report in the public domain and implement it at the earliest. Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the government had taken Mahtab's suggestion "very seriously".

Amidst the demand for two separate time zones, YS Chowdary, Minister of State for Science and Technology, said Russia had 11 time zones, the US nine, while China and India had only one time zone each.