The Times of India        09.10.2014   

Civic body to review, overhaul its disaster management programme

NAVI MUMBAI: The civic body has chalked out a three-phase programme to review its disaster management plan. The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation's (NMMC) disaster management cell has also made plans to conduct a year-long study on how well the city is equipped to handle any hazard as well as its impact on the society.

In the first phase, the disaster management plan will be reviewed by Tata Institute of Social Sciences. "The institute will be reviewing the steps taken by the civic body in any disaster. It will study in detail the impact of various disasters on the city and the different actions taken by the disaster management team to deal with it," said a senior official from the disaster management cell.

The institute is expected to conduct its study specifically on the impacts of nine disasters such as earthquakes, floods, dilapidated building collapse, chemical accidents, tsunami, riots and landslides. Work on the month-long project has already started.

The cell will be updated about any new course of action to be implemented and ways to better its ways of functioning.

The second and third phases will be a study of how vulnerable the city is to any hazard and its social impact. "This will be a year-long process where we will test the infrastructure's vulnerability to hazards such as earthquakes with the help of simulation techniques. A decision will be taken at the earliest," added the official.

J Sinnarkar, in-charge of disaster management department, said that they are engaged in lot of activities. "Reviewing the disaster management plans is one of the processes," he added.