Lesson for life: BMC to train dwellers of slide-prone areas

City has 291 landslide-prone spots and most of them are in eastern suburbs

In another measure for a safe monsoon, the BMC has undertaken a unique life-saving drive of training the residents living in the landslide prone areas of Bhandup, Ghatkopar and Vikhroli. Starting from this week, the training team will be visiting the vulnerable areas and impart disaster management lessons.

The city has 291 spots that are prone to landslides, most of them are in the eastern suburbs. In the last two years, 61 people have died due to landslides in Vikhroli and Chembur. Considering the situation's gravity, the state government formed a committee under a professor from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. While work is also underway to design a comprehensive plan for handling disasters in such vulnerable areas and checking the feasibility of rehabilitation.

This year's survey has found 74 locations under the 'most vulnerable' category. Sticking to the annual norm of sending notices to the inhabitants of these places, the BMC also tries to shift them to safer locations. However, it's a challenging job as many times people aren't ready to leave their huts. Hence, the BMC has come up with the plan to train residents as it will help in saving lives and timely evacuation. While those interested in learning basic disaster management can approach the civic body as it has been training people since 2006. "It's a two days program in which basic information is given to the first responder. Till now, two lakh people have been trained," said a BMC official.

Speaking about the training program for the landslide prone areas, BMC's disaster management cell director Mahesh Narevekar stated that the trainers will visit the most vulnerable sites to give out basic information on how to respond at time of such incidents. The team will select ten volunteers from each community to be trained mainly in rescue operation and crowd control, he added.