HYDERABAD: Come August 1, the city will have a full-fledged Hyderabad Disaster Response Force — formed on the lines of National Disaster Response Force — at its service. Functioning 24x7, the DRF will be well-prepared to handle any emergency situation caused by natural calamities like monsoon floods, or collapse of old buildings under the Greater Hyderabad limits. Eight special DRF teams comprising 120 personnel have been trained through the rigorous regime that their NDRF counterparts follow to deal with emergency situations.
“As many as 40 trained personnel will be available 24 hours a day at the vulnerable points,” Enforcement, Vigilance and Disaster Management, director Vishawjit Kampati told Express. After Mumbai, Hyderabad will be the only city in India to have full-fledged DRF teams in place to tackle emergency situations. Special uniforms have been designed for the DRF personnel. These teams will be stationed at major vulnerable points for three shifts per day and would work eight hours a day, mainly at bottleneck places like water logging points and traffic congestion prone areas.
The DRF would be expanded from zonal level to circle levels soon i.e. all 30 GHMC circles would have one DRF team in place to tackle any problem arising at circle levels, Kampati said.
What HDRF would do
DRF task force is charged with responding rapidly to help residents in emergency situations
One team would be provided to each zonal office and two teams would be stationed at Directorate
Eight new vehicles purchased