Control room for quick disaster response
After glaring lapses by federal and state agencies to respond immediately to the people in distress during natural calamities, the government is setting up an integrated control room for an emergency response mechanism which can get activated promptly, especially to handle natural disasters and to carry out a strategic level of monitoring.
“It has been found that during natural calamities, the response time of the state and central governments is delayed, causing loss of many lives,” said a senior officer in Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). A similar situation arose during the recent floods in Bihar, wherein the state and Centre’s response was very much delayed.
As per the Flood Situation Report prepared by the Home Ministry, at least 1,633 people died and 15.9 million people in 20,613 villages across the country have been affected so far this year. Also, over 230,000 houses and 1.376 million crops have been damaged so far.
Establishing an integrated control room for emergency response has been in the pipeline, but MHA has now expedited the process. The ministry’s internal note states: “The Ministry of Home Affairs proposes to establish an integrated Control Room for Emergency Response in the national capital for handling natural disasters and emergency situations with situational awareness and strategic level of monitoring.”
The note further states that the comprehensive backend and control room infrastructure will be primarily located at New Delhi City Centre-II towers at Jai Singh Marg in New Delhi with an additional room as infrastructure in North Block, which will serve as a front office to the control room.
The MHA also plans to augment the existing National Database for Emergency Management (NDEM), a GIS-based repository of data, at Shadnagar in Hyderabad and integrate it with the control room. NDEM supports the total cycle of disaster, emergency management for the country, in near real time, with a complete database.
The control room will be based on state
of-the-art information technology and will be equipped with latest video walls. “Two control rooms each are contemplated at the NDCC-II Building and North Block for a total of four control rooms. There is no immediate plan for a control room at NRSC Shadnagar.”
The ministry also stated that the first National Disaster Management Plan was prepared on June 1, 2016. The plan aligned with the Sendai Framework of Action, which was agreed upon by 187 countries, including India in March 2015.
It aims to make India disaster resilient and significantly reduce the loss of live and assets. The plan covers all phases of disaster management: prevention, mitigation, response and recovery.
On September 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a global Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York.
“India is launching a Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. I invite all member states to join this coalition,” Modi said.
The partnership of national governments, UN agencies and programmes, multilateral development banks, financing mechanisms, private sector and knowledge institutions will promote the resilience of new and existing infrastructure systems to tackle climate and disaster risks, thereby ensuring sustainable development, the home ministry stated.