Orissa to set up five more ODRAF - Naveen

Bhubaneswar, Oct 29 (UNI) Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today announced to set up five more Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) units in the state to effectively manage disasters in future.

Mr Patnaik said five units of ODRAF trained in search and rescue operations were working in the state and five more units would be added soon.

The Chief Minister announced this while addressing a function, organised here to observe the state Disaster Preparedness Day and the National Day for Disaster Reduction.

He said Doppler Radars would also be set up at Paradeep, Gopalpur and Sambalpur for predicting correct weather condition within a radius of 400 km.

In addition to it, a pilot project on mobile-based technology for generation of geo-spatial data in technical collaboration with National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad, was launched today for disaster management.

Speaking on the occasion, Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal said very soon the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project with the assistance from the World Bank and the Union government would be implemented in the state.

The construction of cyclone shelters, link roads, shelter belt plantations, strengthening of saline embankments and regeneration of mangroves would be taken up under the project, he said.

Panchayati Raj Minister Raghunath Mohanty said sustainable development could not be made without reducing the vulnerability of the state to disasters and stressed the need for establishing a link between the developmental process and disaster proofing activities.

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