NEW DELHI: Indian Coast Guard together with the other Maritime Disaster stakeholders held important one-day Maritime disaster response workshop and paper exercise at its District Headquarters No.1 in Porbandar on Tuesday.
Coast Guard Said, “The one day workshop was attended by delegates from Maritime Disaster stakeholders including Navy, NDRF, state disaster management authorities, fisheries, police, AAI, State health Dept and port authorities apart from Indian Coast Guard officials.”
The relevance of such exercise can be understood more as this whole exercise coincided with the formation of Cyclone Vayu in the Arabian Sea. The workshop came handy in, “The preparedness and response plan for impending cyclone was worked out by all agencies together which will be helpful for mitigation of impact of the Cyclone Vayu.” said the Coast Guard.
The aim of the exercise was to revalidate the procedures and policies established for responding to Maritime Disaster Contingencies by all maritime stakeholders, added Coast Guard. It was also “to check the readiness and integration of the resource agencies, equipment, communication procedures and effectiveness on training of disaster management response.”
The workshop highlighted the need of pre imperative measures and quick coordinated response. The inherent risks associated with maritime disaster and the capacity to proliferate in to other contingencies was also brought out requiring the need for planning and preparedness. It was precipitated that the impact of disasters can be reduced by evolving a Robust Disaster Response Construct, thorough Preparedness and an Efficient Disaster Risk Management to prevent avoidable loss of life and infrastructure. A greater need for integration, collaborative efforts and planning towards Maritime Disaster was released by all agencies.