Bhubaneswar: With the severe cyclonic storm Fani looming large over the city, the administration has chalked out a massive action plan to ensure smooth evacuation and rescue work.
Chairing a multi-agency coordination meeting at the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Conference Hall Thursday, Works Secretary Krishan Kumar directed all agencies concerned to work as a team so that problems are addressed managed properly.
He also asked citizens not to resort to panic buying and hoarding. The Civil Supplies department has been asked to keep tabs on businessmen trying to hoard essential commodities and create a crisis-like situation in the name of the cyclone.
The multi-agency coordination meeting was also addressed by the Vice-Chairman of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), Balwant Singh, and other senior officials of the BDA, BMC, Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited, Commissionerate Police, Fire Services, Works department, Public Health Engineering Organisation, Water Resources, Energy, Housing and Urban Development department and the Revenue and Disaster Mitigation department.
As Fani is likely to cause heavy to very heavy rainfall after landfall near Puri, the meeting called for steps to ensure immediate evacuation, road clearance, drain de-silting and provision of power supply for emergency operations and telecommunication networks.
The meet also provided a toll-free number, 18003450061, and landline 0674-2431253 for immediate grievance redressal.
A multi-agency control room also started functioning at the BMC from Thursday evening to coordinate complaints from across the city corporation area.
The Drainage and Engineering wing of the BMC has started cleaning and de-silting major storm water channels and drains so that rainwater can easily flow into main channel Gangua nullah.
The evacuation plan provides two cyclone shelters in each ward where people can take shelter. At the cyclone shelters there would be adequate supplies of medicine, food and water.
The city has been divided into 13 sectors. Each sector will be headed by an OAS officer and will have an engineer (civil) and another one from the drainage wing. The Sector Officer will have powers to take decisions on emergencies and recommend action as per requirements.
Affected roads would be cleared by workers under the supervision of a nodal officer. There will also be a drainage engineer who in consultation with the team will decide on the positioning of pumps in low-lying areas.
The sectors are Infocity, Xavier, Vani Vihar, Kuakhai, Khandagiri, Iskcon area, OUAT, Airport, Smart District Area, Sachivalaya Marg, Cuttack Road, Kalpana and Lingaraj.
The sector officers will be assisted by respective ward officers, Community Organisers, Anganwadi Workers, Asha workers and community and slum leaders to identify problems in low-lying areas in case of heavy rains.
