Maha plans to expand SDRF for quicker response to disasters

MUMBAI: To ensure an efficient and speedier response to disasters, the state government is working on expanding the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) by stationing these teams in State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) camps across Maharashtra. This brownfield expansion of the SDRF’S facilities will do away with the need to acquire land to set up these units, which often causes delays in building stations for rescue teams.

It is also looking at creating synergies between the disaster response teams and agencies like the home guards and civil defence during any adverse events.

After the floods in the Konkan and parts of western Maharashtra, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said that a separate force on lines of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will be established in all districts and that the SDRF will be strengthened. The state government drew flak for the delay at the beginning of the rescue operations at most of the affected areas. One of the reasons was the delay in reaching the rescue teams to the disaster sites.

Vijay Wadettiwar, minister, relief and rehabilitation, confirmed they were planning to locate SDRF units in SRPF camps. In the first phase, the department is planning to focus on the most affected districts like Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur. It also wants to have two teams for the three districts of Mumbai, Thane and Palghar, added Wadettiwar.

“This proposal will be discussed in the meeting of the state cabinet,” said Wadettiwar, adding that they were also planning to acquire a helicopter for undertaking rescue operations.

Officials from the relief and rehabilitation department of the state government said they were planning to establish SDRF units

in the existing State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) camps. The SRPF groups—there are 16 groups at 13 locations in Maharashtra—will have a small unit of the disaster relief force, which will be used exclusively for disaster response.

SRPF camps are located at Pune, Daund, Mumbai, Solapur, Navi Mumbai, Kolhapur, Jalna, Nagpur, Dhule, Amravati, Hingoli, Aurangabad and Gondia. The SRPF also has a training centre at Nanvij in Daund. Locating