Disaster infrastructure works worth Rs 119 crore completed

Panaji: The water resources department has completed infrastructure works worth `119-crore for disaster management, which are partially funded by the World Bank and had commenced in 2019 and the same will be handed over to the State Disaster Management Authority by month-end.

WRD chief engineer Pramod Badami said that 38 early-warning towers and 11 multipurpose disaster resilient cyclone shelters have been constructed under the project across the Goa.

“Four components of the project include capacity building, early warning information dissemination systems for vulnerable areas, construction of cyclone shelters and improvement to electrical infrastructure making it resilient to face the cyclone,” he said.

The WRD chief engineer further said that the 38 early-warning towers are connected with GSM and optical fibre and will alert the public through sirens, high-beam lights etc about disasters of various types well in advance.

“The 11 multipurpose cyclone shelters can accommodate upto 500 people and are resilient to various types of disasters including earthquake of 9 Richter-scale magnitude. On a pilot basis, underground electrical system resilient to wind speed up to 155 km per hour has been set up at Anjuna under the project,” he added.

Meanwhile, state-level table top exercise on cyclones organised by Goa State Disaster Management Authority in collaboration with National Disaster Management Authority was held at the Secretariat, Porvorim on Wednesday.

The district mock exercise on cyclone disaster will be conducted by the Office of the South District and South Goa District Disaster Management Authority, Margao, at the Colva beach on March 3 from 9 a.m. onwards.