JAGATSINGHPUR: An expert team from Larsen and Toubro (L&T) and other officials visited the tsunami-prone villages of the district on Thursday for installation of Early Warning Dissemination System (EWDS).
On Wednesday, mock tsunami drills were conducted in 28 coastal villages to alert people on how to deal with emergency situations. During the drill, villagers complained about non-availability of EWDS and demanded its installation. The L&T expert team visited Paradip, Erasama and Balikuda for installation of EWDS under National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP). The 28 villages include eight wards of Paradip Municipality, 11 villages of Erasama, two of Kujang and six of Balikuda. While these villages covering 54 km coastline of the district have been identified as tsunami prone, Ward Number 7 of Udayachandpur under PPL area of Paradip is marked as the most vulnerable area.
The warning towers of EWDS would blow siren about two hours prior to the arrival of any calamity. Each warning tower would have a coverage area of 3 to 4 km. Deputy Collector, Emergency, Satyanarayan Das said, “Preliminary survey has been completed for installation of 12 EWDS, including two in Paradip Municipality, seven in Erasama and three in Balikuda block. The special team has also identified the place of installation. The EWDS would be installed soon.”