Construction work of the National Disaster Response Force’s 10th battalion at Mangalagiri is set to commence in the middle of October for which tendering and other procedures are in progress.
The NDRF has been allotted a 50-acre site in the temple town for raising permanent headquarters, from where it will render disaster mitigation services in its jurisdictional area that spans Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Announcing this in his first official interaction with mediapersons at the battalion’s temporary headquarters at Acharya Nagarjuna University on Saturday, Commandant Prasanth Dhar said officers and staff of the erstwhile CRPF battalion that was based in the strife-torn Kupwara (Jammu & Kashmir), were now well trained in handling natural and man-made disasters.
The battalion has state-of-the-art equipment required to deal with any contingency. It has got the logistical and financial resources necessary for mitigating the impact of disasters ranging from a building collapse to a level-3 incident such as a high magnitude earthquake or tsunami.
Depending on the gravity of the situation, NDRF personnel would be airlifted to the sites of disasters. Responding to an emergency in the first 24 hours would yield the best results, and the NDRF was capable of doing that at short notice, he said.
Helpline
The NDRF is organising familiarisation-cum-community awareness exercises on ways to save lives before search and rescue teams arrive.
The battalion can be contacted on phone numbers 0863-2293050 (control room) and 0863-2293178/7382299621 (Commandant).
NDRF 10th battalion Second-in-Command Sanjay Kumar, Deputy Commandants — Sohan Singh and Kuldeep Singh, and Assistant Commandants R.P. Bharti, Vikram Singh, Krishan Kumar, and K.S. Subheesh were present.
