Disaster management plan ready

PUNE, Oct 14: Maharashtra will develop a disaster management information system with a detailed database mapped on the geographical infor...

PUNE, Oct 14: Maharashtra will develop a disaster management information system with a detailed database mapped on the geographical information system GIS software now being installed at the 32 district collectorates.

N. Vinodchandra Menon, head of the Centre for Disaster Management, Yeshwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration YASHADA, said an emergency operation centre was set up at the Mantralaya with mirror image of the standby control room functioning at YASHADA.

Menon was addressing a seminar on 8220;Natural disaster mitigation and the role of media8221; organised by the Pune Union of Working Journalists PUWJ and Hydrosphere on Wednesday as part of the international decade for natural disaster reduction. Vanarai president Mohan Dharia chaired the session.

Preparation of the system was undertaken by the coordinating centre at YASHADA as part of the World Bank-aided Maharashtra emergency earthquake rehabilitation project. The centre was set up in 1996 and with the United Nations8217; Development Fund support, a detailed database of all the villages in Maharashtra and its infrastructural facilities has been compiled and mapped on a GIS software ARCINFO.

With the V-SAT and VHF communication network, nearly 572 base stations, 56 repeater stations, 171 mobile stations have been set up with tehsildars to receive wireless sets as part of the community awareness on disaster preparedness, Menon said. The Mantralaya emergency centre, Menon said, was designed and modelled on the lines of the US federal emergency management agency.

The control room will be used for videoconferencing with collectors. The disaster plan is to be revised every six months. YASHADA and the Indira Gandhi National Open University had undertaken a research project in various villages to prepare a communication action plan.

Dr Mukund Ghare, director, AFARM, gave a detailed presentation on the kinds of natural and man-made hazards while Dharia urged newspapers to devote more space for developmental news. Dr. S.B. Mujumdar, director, Symbiosis, and Dr S.S. Thigale, founder director of Hydrosphere, also spoke on the occasion.