CHENNAI: Revenue and Disaster Management Minister K A Sengottaiyan on Tuesday said the government has created a Rs 50-crore revolving fund to ensure district collectors have immediate access to resources for preparedness, rescue, relief and rehabilitation measures.
Speaking at a workshop on ‘Heat Risk Management Towards Building a Heat-Resilient Tamil Nadu’ in Guindy, the minister said the fund has been allocated to the Tamil Nadu Disaster Risk Reduction Agency (TNDRRA) and would be released to district collectors as and when required.
He also announced that the Tamil Nadu State Institute of Disaster Management would be established at a cost of Rs 55 crore.
The institute will function as the state’s nodal centre for disaster management training, research, capacity building, policy support and scientific innovation.
Sengottaiyan said thousands of frontline personnel had been trained in disaster management, including 550 Aapda Mitra and 6,034 Yuva Aapda Mitra volunteers. He added that the Tamil Nadu State Heat Action Plan 2026, released on June 9, was among the most comprehensive such plans in the country.
Experts at the workshop discussed implementation of the Heat Action Plan, sustainable cooling measures, heat-resilient infrastructure and strategies to improve energy resilience during extreme heat events.
During the event, TNDRRA also signed an MoU with the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, for collaboration in urban meteorology, weather analysis and thunderstorm and lightning research.
Another MoU was signed between the Greater Chennai Corporation and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) to establish a Project Management Unit for preparing detailed project reports (DPR) aimed at strengthening heat preparedness in vulnerable wards of Chennai.