Labourers work at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Sunday ahead of the centenary celebrations. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Feb. 26: The Bihar centenary year celebrations, slated to be held at Gandhi Maidan on March 22, 23 and 24, would not be confined to culture, tradition and history of the state. It would be one of the biggest platforms for sensitising people on disaster management.

Bihar State Disaster Management Authority (BSDMA) has tied up with educational institutions, including Bihar College of Engineering (BCE), National Institute of Engineering (NIT) and Birla Institute of Technology, Patna, and security forces, including National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), homeguards and fire services among others, to spread awareness on many types of disaster and measures to be taken for their mitigation.

BSDMA will construct a pavilion at Gandhi Maidan, which would accommodate 16 stalls. “Disaster management has two important aspects — disaster response and spreading public awareness. While steps are being taken from time to time to strengthen the disaster response mechanisms, events like these are aimed at spreading awareness among masses. Thus, we are going to build a pavilion of 16 stalls for organising different activities,” Anil Kumar Sinha, the vice-chairman of BSDMA, told The Telegraph. One stall would be erected for providing information on different types of disasters. Other stalls would showcase models of disaster-resistant houses, including those resistant from fire, earthquake and flood in rural as well as urban areas and safe school buildings. Similar models would be exhibited on mobile vans. The models would be big enough to allow visitors to go inside. “We have tied up with BCE, NIT and BIT, Patna, for developing models of such houses. Students of these institutions would be present at the different stalls along with their faculty members to explain the concept of the models and to reply to visitors’ queries. They would also be present at the earthquake safety clinics stalls to provide counselling on earthquake safety measures,” said Sinha.

Two big screens would also be put up at this pavilion, to project informative movies on disaster management. Stalls dedicated to women, senior citizens and differently abled people would also be put up. “Apart from the stalls, we are also in talks with various security forces, including NDRF, civil defence agencies, homeguards and fire services among others for conducting mock drills based on disaster response,” said Sinha.

Around six gas balloons with disaster management slogans inscribed on them would also be put up at a visible height.

People would also be able to savour delicacies from different regions across the country at stalls provided by the tourism department at Gandhi Maidan. “We are in the process of selecting an agency for putting up food stalls from at least 10 different regions of the country. The agency would either outsource eatery owners from other states or we might have to select a local agency having expertise in multi-ethnic cuisines and even street-food stalls from across the country,” said a senior official of Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation.