NDRF officials during rescue work at the site of building collapse in Mumbai. (Express photo)
Mumbai saw its first green corridor being set up for relief and rescue operations on Thursday when the state government set up a 21-km-long high-speed corridor between Vakola in the suburbs and Bhendi Bazaar in South Mumbai for teams of the NDRF to reach the building collapse site. The three NDRF teams deployed for the operation eventually rescued three people alive from the debris.
While Maharashtra has been using “green corridors” to speed up transportation of organs for life-saving transplants, Thursday was the first time that a dedicated corridor was set up to ferry rescuers to the site of a disaster.
Taking cue from Thursday, Additional Chief Secretary (Relief and Rehabilitation) Medha Gadgil said the state administration had plans to create a policy, making creation of such green corridors a standard operating procedure (SOP) during relief and rescue efforts.
The six-storey Hussaini building, situated on Pakmodia Street in the congested Bhendi Bazaar, collapsed around 8.30 am on Thursday morning. While the Mumbai fire brigade was immediately pressed into service, the Mumbai municipality’s disaster management cell got in touch with the NDRF teams stationed at the Andheri Sports Complex around 8.55 am to join the rescue efforts.
It was 9.05 am by the time three teams of the NDRF left for the rescue operation from the NDRF base, which is 26 kilometres away from the collapse site. But Mumbai’s slow moving South-bound traffic during the peak hour slowed down the NDRF teams’ drive to the spot. Sachidanand Gawade, Deputy Commandant, NDRF, recounted the ordeal.
“Our teams were stuck in a traffic jam. We had barely reached Vakola, which is just 5 kilometres from our base till 9.40 am, and there was a long traffic jam ahead,” said Gawade. “This is when we contacted the state authorities requesting them to consider setting up a high-speed corridor,” he added.
Around the same time, Chief Secretary Sumit Mullick and Gadgil, the senior-most bureaucrats in Maharashtra, happened to be monitoring the rescue operations from the state disaster control room in Mantralaya. They wasted no time in alerting the Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Amitesh Kumar, who also responded promptly.
A pilot vehicle of the Mumbai traffic police, accompanied by traffic police on bikes, formed an escort around the vehicles of the NDRF team, ensuring that private vehicles ahead made way for the rescuers, and a high-speed corridor could be created.
Due to the green corridor, the NDRF teams covered the remaining 21-kilometre distance in 40 minutes, reaching the collapse site by 10.30 am.
“Had it not been for the traffic police’s green corridor, we would have taken another one-and-a-half hours to get to the site. The welcome initiative helped us save three innocent lives,” said Gawade.