Odisha gears up to set up an institute to take up ‘disaster management’ at every level

Bhubaneswar, January 19: Odisha set to establish an institute for training people on how to rescue victims of natural disasters such as tsunamis, cyclones and floods. The State Institute of Disaster Management (SIDM), to be set up at Gothapatna, will also conduct research activities related to disaster management, an officer of the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) said. The system will send warnings through messages to mobile phones in a particular locality, which is likely to be affected by a disaster. 

Personnel of the fire brigade, the Police, Civil Defence and Volunteers who are engaged in rescue operations in the event of natural disasters would be given training at SIDM, said OSDMA Commissioner-cum-Secretary and Managing Director, B P Sethi. The decision to set up the institute was taken at the Governing Body meeting of OSDMA, under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary A P Padhi.

Odisha has been a victim of several natural disasters during the course of the last few decades, including the Super Cyclone of 1999. Another project, the Early Warning Dissemination System, is almost in its final stage, Sethi said.

The project - aimed at protecting human lives and livestock in coastal areas of the state during natural disasters - is scheduled to be completed by March 31, he added.