Having Two Time Zones for India

Why in news?

A proposal for two time zones has come from the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research’s National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL).

How is time defined and maintained?

• If lines of longitude are drawn exactly a degree apart, they will divide the Earth into 360 zones.
• As the Earth spins 360° in 24 hours, a longitudinal distance of 15° represents 1 hour.
• In other words, 1° represents a time separation of 4 minutes.
• So theoretically, the time zone followed by any place should relate to its longitudinal distance from any other place.
• Political boundaries mean that time zones are often demarcated by bent lines rather than straight lines of longitude.
• This is the “legal time”, as defined by a country’s law.
• The geographic “zero line” runs through Greenwich, London.
• It identifies the GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), now known as Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
• It is maintained by the Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) in France.
• The United States follows several time zones across its breadth.

What is the case with India?

• The Indian Standard Time (IST) is maintained by CSIR-NPL.
• The Indian Standard Time (IST) is based on a line of longitude that runs through Mirzapur in UP.
• At 82°33’E, the line is 82.5° east of Greenwich, or 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of UCT.
• But notably, India extends from 68°7’E to 97°25’E (spread of 29°), representing almost two hours from the geographic perspective.
• Evidently, there is huge difference in daylight times between the country’s longitudinal extremes.
• So the early sunrise in the easternmost parts causes the loss of many daylight hours by the time offices or educational institutions open.
• Also, the early sunset in the region, leads to higher consumption of electricity and concerns over the costs associated it.
• Thus, over the years, there have been demands and debates over India having two separate time zones.
• Concern - Those against the idea cite the impracticability of having different time zones.
• Particularly the risk of railway accidents is cited, given the need to reset times at every crossing from one time zone into another.
• The government has also, in the past, not favoured two time zones citing the complexities involved.

What is the recent proposal?

• The CSIR-NPL has published a research article describing the necessity of two time zones.
• It has proposed a new time zone with an hour ahead of the existing time zone.
• It proposes to call the two time zones IST-I (UTC + 5.30 h) and IST-II (UTC + 6.30 h).
• The proposed line of demarcation is at 89°52’E, the narrow border between Assam and West Bengal.
• States west of the line would follow IST-I, and states east of the line would follow IST-II.
• The latter include Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunanchal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
• To make the idea possible, CSIR-NPL would need a second laboratory in the new time zone.
• CSIR-NPL already has the technical expertise to duplicate its existing facility, but the move would require legislative sanction.

What is the rationale?

• The “chicken neck”, connecting Northeast to the rest of India, is where the two time zones will be demarcated from each other.
• Railways - The railway signals have not yet been fully automated in the country.
• In this line, the border between the two time zones has a very narrow spatial-width with minimum number of train stations.
• So the train timings, while crossing the border, can be managed manually without any untoward incidents.
• Energy - The country could potentially save 20 million kWh energy a year if it follows two time zones.
• Besides, the importance of synchronising office hours as well as biological activities to sunrise and sunset timings was analysed.

Source: Indian Express