Faced tsunami in 1945,but city kept out of crucial drill

While the state government officials involved district management teams and locals along the Maharashtra coast in the drill,which coincided with the International Disaster Management Day,Mumbai missed out on the drill. Officials from Thane,Raigad,Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg participated in the drill,which started at 6.30 am with a warning of 9.2 Richter scale earthquake off northern Sumatra that could trigger a tsunami. The warning identified places likely to be affected,including Mumbai,Thane,Alibaug in Raigad district,Malvan in Sindhudurg district and Anjanwel in Ratnagiri district.

Preparation for the drill started with a meeting at the Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) a few months ago,which has been appointed as the nodal agency for tsunami warning centre after 2004. Officials from four districts were sent for the meetings and follow-up training,but no Mumbai official was involved.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s disaster management cell chief officer Mahesh Narvekar said: “We were not informed about the drill. We were not invited for any training related to tsunami. We are otherwise in touch with INCOIS for earthquake alerts on a regular basis,but we were not invited for this drill.” He said they instead held drills to tackle chemical,biological disaster in Mumbai in collaboration with National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

Officials in the state disaster management department conceded that Mumbai should have been included in the drill on Wednesday,but could not give a reason why it was not.

“There is no reason as to why Mumbai was not included. Ninety nine per cent of the coast was covered,” said J S Saharia,Additional Chief Secretary,relief and rehabilitation department. “We are doing many other special programmes for Mumbai,” he added.