BMC looks at Navy,rlys,hospitals to cut response time during disasters

With a view to reduce the response time of rescue operations during disasters and to improve the quality of its disaster management activities,the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will soon hire resources from government and private agencies in the city.

With a view to reduce the response time of rescue operations during disasters and to improve the quality of its disaster management activities,the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will soon hire resources from government and private agencies in the city. The civic body has written to 80 such agencies asking them to furnish details about skilled manpower and machinery available with them that can be used during a disaster.

Chief officer of the BMCs disaster management cell Mahesh Narvekar admitted that the civic body lacks adequate machinery needed for appropriate disaster response. There are numerous agencies that possess these resources and these should be used to mitigate the effects of a disaster. Most of the times,lives are lost because of delay in response and poor quality of response. We have asked these agencies to rent their resources to the BMC, said Narvekar.

The agencies include Indian Coast Guards,Indian Meteorological Department,Mumbai Port Trust,Railways,Civil defense,Mumbai Police,director of health services,MTNL,armed forces,airports authority,PSUs like ONGC,Indian Oil,Tata power among others. BMC has also written to major private hospitals and day-and-night pharmacies. Data from the agencies will be compiled by the BMC for quick coordination during disasters.

We do not have qualified divers and the equipment required to go deep into a water body. The Navy and Mumbai Port Trust will provide us with these divers. The first aid quality is not good enough and we are expecting to receive qualitative first aid operators from the Civil defense department, said Narverkar.

He added the BMC doesnt have good concrete cutters and cranes needed in event of a building collapse. People have lost lives because they could not be removed from the debris or from the mangles of an accident-hit vehicle in time. Availability of these resources will help save lives, said Narvekar.

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