Two disaster control rooms set up for Tsunami-hit Andaman

Port Blair, Jul 20 (UNI) The Andaman and Nicobar Police has constructed two disaster management control rooms for the remote Indian islands, which were ravaged by disastrous tsunami in 2004.

''The first control room is located at the Andaman Superintendent of Police's office and the other one is far away in the police lines, completely made up of wood, which has better chance of surviving deadly earthquakes,'' Director General of Andaman and Nicobar Police Ranjit Narayan told UNI here yesterday.

During any disaster or alert both the disaster control rooms, equipped with modern devices, are immediately manned to control the situation effectively.

The Andaman and Nicobar Police is also planning to run the back-up wooden disaster control room completely with solar power so that in case of any disaster or failure of power the control room could provide uninterrupted service.

''Since after any disaster police is the first respondent, we have got adequate equipment to handle the situation,'' Mr Narayan added.

The Andaman and Nicobar police have also got 'SMS' alert system, in which during any earthquake a Hyderabad-based observatory sends details of the earthquakes to senior police officers by SMS in no time.

''The moment there is an earthquake a team of senior officers of Andaman and Nicobar Police get details of strength, magnitude and depth of the quake within no time and then the high level team judges what action needs to be taken,'' he added.

''We need the most modern disaster control room because we are not only in an earthquake prone area but also tsunami prone and also cyclone prone area,'' Mr Narayan added.

UNI SKR DPM RC BD1159