Delhi to get major boost in disaster management; Army report awaited

The Delhi Government is awaiting a report by the Army, which had conducted a third-party evaluation of the mega mock drill carried out by the National Disaster Management Authority in Delhi on February 15, to finalise its plans for setting up a major emergency operation centre for disaster management and procurement of essential equipment.

“The Army had minutely monitored the mock drill and its report is expected soon. The Delhi Government had also carried out its own appraisal which revealed that there were several areas on which we need to act fast. I am sure now that the ball has been set rolling, things would move fast once the Army report also comes in,” said Divisional Commissioner and Secretary (Revenue and Delhi Disaster Management Authority) Vijay Dev talking to The Hindu on Monday.

According to Mr. Dev, the disaster management scenario in Delhi is due for a complete facelift. “We intend setting up an Emergency Operation Centre which would be housed in an earthquake-proof building. It would connect the Divisional Commissioner and all the nine Deputy Commissioners in the revenue districts with the ambulance, hospital, fire and police services through a computerised system. This system would be global positioning system (GPS) enabled, have an online connectivity and various maps to guide the personnel and officials during an emergency.”

The EOC would also provide a complete link-up to the emergency vehicles services. “All agencies would also be brought on the same frequency through a dedicated communication system. At present we are using the Tetra sets but a new system would be required soon as it is not sufficient,” Mr. Dev said.

The official said the communication system would have to meet the needs of all the agencies, some of which like the Delhi Police do not wish to share all their communications with the rest. “So it would have at least one common frequency for all ‘emergency support functionaries' to communicate at the time of an emergency or disaster. Apart from that they would also be able to have their own secured frequencies.”


Read in detail at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23336