NDRF deploys one team in Mumbai to tackle monsoon-related crises

Mumbai: The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has deployed one team at the City Institute of Disaster Management (CIDM) in Parel to tackle any monsoon-related exigencies.

The team of 76 personnel (26 from NDRF and 50 from the City Disaster Response Force- CDRF) will remain stationed in Parel to reduce response time, said Mahesh Nalavade, Deputy Commandant, NDRF.

Until last year, the NDRF team would reach the disaster spot after alerts of heavy rainfall were issued. The team would take time to reach south and central Mumbai from Andheri.

“Considering the issues faced by general public of Mumbai during monsoon, 5BN (five battalions) of  NDRF, in coordination with Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has pre-positioned one team of NDRF with all disaster response equipment in south Mumbai, which generally gets inundated. So it will be easier for the team,” said Sachidanand Gawade, who is Deputy Commandant, NDRF, from Pune.

He further added that one NDRF team is stationed in Thane, where it will remain for 15 days before moving to Raigad and Ratnagiri areas during the monsoon.

“The prepositioning of team in Parel will provide coordination with various other stakeholder agencies during operations for smooth and fast response,” said Nalavade.

The NDRF and BMC personnel have carried out one joint survey of the flooding spots and landslide prone areas. “We have identified 30 waterlogging spots in the city,” said Nalavade.

The NDRF has trained 200 BMC personnel and 20 doctors to constitute a team of CDRF “Until now, we have trained two teams and the training of a third batch is going on. We will also give them specialised training. All trained personnel are expert to tackle waterlogging, building collapse, etc and trained to provide pre-hospital treatment to injured people,” said Gawade.

Three teams of NDRF are generally stationed at Andheri. It will be easier for the team to reach central and south Mumbai. They can respond to the calls of flooding, building collapse, waterlogging in a few minutes. Maharashtra state government has assured the NDRF teams of green corridors.

“All the divisional commissioners, collectors, Superintendent of Police, police commissioners, etc have been given direction by the relief and rehabilitation department of Maharashtra government to provide them green corridors across Maharashtra when they are on the move to respond to disaster calls,” a senior government official told The Free Press Journal.