An integrated control room will be operational at Kolkata police headquarters in Lalbazar from Sunday in preparation for Cyclone Mocha in case it heads towards the city.
The control room will have representatives from different agencies like police, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, disaster management department, PWD, CESC and others.
A letter from a senior officer of the disaster management and civil defence department to all the agencies concerned has spelt out the need for remaining prepared ahead of the impending cyclone beginning Sunday.
A communication from Lalbazar to the department heads has said the representatives should meet at the integrated control room, which “will be functional from 06.00 hours on May 7”.
“Once representatives from all the departments, including fire and emergency services, the National Disaster Response Force, Metro Railway, RVNL and others converge at the control room, separate worksheets will be drawn up depending upon the pathway of the cyclone,” said a senior police officer.
The integrated control room will have the telephone numbers of all the unit heads of each agency. A copy of these numbers will be circulated to all the representatives before a check for preparedness is carried out, senior police officers said.
“All police stations and traffic guards have been asked to depute one officer each who will be the liaison officer coordinating with different agencies from the police station and the concerned traffic guard,” a senior officer from the disaster management and civil defence department said.
On Saturday the met department officials said a cyclonic circulation, which is a precursor to Mocha, began shaping up over the southeast Bay of Bengal. Beginning Sunday morning, team officials at the control room will start tracking the developments of this circulation closely while another will start coordinating with officials at the ground level.
Senior police officers said each officer from a police station will be handed over the contact numbers of representatives of each of the departments and utilities including fire, CESC and KMC.
In case of any difficulty in coordinating with the representatives, the officer will call up the control room for immediate redressal, another police officer said.
“The police stations have been asked to keep ready a list of old and dilapidated buildings under their respective jurisdictions and also earmark places where people can be removed for temporary shelter,” the officer said.
“Teams from the disaster management department will be stationed at the headquarters of each of the nine divisions of Kolkata police. They will move based on specific inputs and directions from the control room.”
By Sunday evening, members of the disaster management group were asked to be ready at their respective barracks and inspect their gadgets like tree trimmers, wire cutters, hand-held saws and others.
