Uttar Pradesh officials visit APSDMA office

Vijayawada: The Uttar Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (UPSDMA) officials visited the Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (APSDMA) office in Amaravati and enquired about the procedures being followed by it during natural calamities and disasters and technology being used to alert the people during the emergencies.

Project experts Chandrakanth and IT expert Prashant Shahi of UPSDMA enquired about the types of calamities and disasters faced by Andhra Pradesh. APSDMA managing director Dr B R Ambedkar said 44 per cent of the disasters faced by Andhra Pradesh are cyclones and 15 per cent disasters are floods and the remaining are drought, lightning and others.

He also explained the technology being used to send alerts to the people and press releases to the media on the calamities and disasters. Ambedkar also explained the functioning of the state emergency operation, 24 hours supervision of disaster management authority, setting up of control rooms during the calamities and disasters, weather reports, weather information broadcast system, common alert protocol and other means followed by the APSDMA.

He told the visiting officials of the usage of satellite phones, satellite based mobile data voice terminal (SBMDVT) walkie talkies, V Sat communications, etc., that is used when communication network gets damaged and fails. The APSDMA officials also explained about the web emergency operation centre, geographic information system and others.

UP officials Chandrakanth and Prashant Shahi praised the technology being used by APSDMA in the state and said that they would use the technology in UP also. They enquired about the functioning of the APSDMA and procedures followed during the calamities.

APSDMA executive director Dr C Nagaraju, retired scientist M Ali and other staff were present.