Assam floats tender for satellites to monitor floods and borders

Assam has become the first Indian State to float a tender for a group of earth-observation satellites that it says will strengthen disaster response along the flood-prone Brahmaputra valley and help survey the State’s borders.

The Assam Science Technology and Environment Council issued an Expression of Interest (EOI) on March 16 inviting private aerospace companies to design, build, launch, operate, and eventually transfer the satellites to State ownership. The mission has been named AssamSAT.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced the project in the 2025-26 State Budget as a means to achieve what he has repeatedly described as an “infiltration-free Assam”.

Mr. Sarma has argued that conventional border fencing is inadequate for the State’s chars, the seasonally inundated river islands along the Bangladesh border, and that real-time satellite monitoring is the sole practical alternative.

The procurement is structured around at least five satellites in low-earth orbit. The brief EOI doesn’t say whether the satellites will operate separately or together, in a constellation. Per the brief, qualifying parties can avail the full EOI for a fee of ₹30,000.

Assuming it’s a constellation, the satellites will be able to scan the same part of the ground once every few hours and map it at high resolution — a useful task for disaster response during floods, where the extent of waters can change within hours.

The EOI also doesn’t specify the sensors the satellites will carry. But since the State has cloudy weather for almost half the year, the satellites may carry synthetic aperture radars (SAR), whose gaze can pierce clouds and darkness.

Currently, State disaster management agencies seeking satellite data must submit requests to the National Remote Sensing Centre, which will process and fulfill those requests.

The State sits close to the Siliguri Corridor, a strip of land colloquially called the chicken’s neck that physically connects the Northeast to the rest of India, and which State and Central security agencies have been preoccupied with monitoring.

Mr. Sarma has also extended the satellite’s mandate to include tracking drug-trafficking routes and monitoring poaching in the Kaziranga National Park.

In 2024, NewSpace India, Ltd. cleared a private-sector earth observation constellation led by Dhruva Space and Pixxel.

The plan combines small satellites carrying optical and hyperspectral sensors in low-earth orbit to deliver near real-time imagery for agriculture, disaster response, and national security users while being owned and operated by industry.