Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, along with Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, chaired a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Wednesday to take stock and assess Hazard Vulnerability and Risk Assessment of the city, along with earthquake preparedness plan, urban flooding, extreme heat events and the related “State Heat Action Plan 2025.”
During the meeting, it was underlined that the DDMA was extremely in-equipped in terms of infrastructure, manpower and technology and Delhi was one of the few states in the country to not have a State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) of its own.
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Delhi also lacked a Command and Control Centre (CCC), making a unified and integrated response at the time of disaster impossible.
The LG has directed officials to make land and building available at the earliest and requested the CM to address the issues of logistics that had been neglected by the previous government, while the NDMA was asked and it agreed to provide all necessary technological support in renovation and restructuring of DDMA and setting up of the CCC.
The vulnerability of Delhi to earthquakes owing to its location in Seismic Zone-IV and the recent earthquake on February 18, 2025, made a comprehensive mitigation and prevention strategy imperative.
Moreover, microzonation of areas in the city presented a picture, wherein most of the densely populated colonies along the Yamuna, North, North-West and South-West Delhi fell in highly quake probable areas.
The fact that these areas housed most of the unauthorized colonies wherein structural safety of four-five-storeyed houses on extremely plot sizes, was flagged as a matter of grave concern.
Held much in advance of the forthcoming summer and subsequent Monsoon seasons, the meeting deliberated upon preventive, curative and emergent measures concerning various aspects that included availability and distribution management of water, desilting of drains and sewer lines, drainage management, installation of requisite equipment.
As regards earthquake preparedness, the meeting deliberated upon retro fitment of hospitals, identified school buildings for immediate relief, fire stations, gas, water, power supply lines and Metro.
Large scale retro fitment especially in unauthorized colonies, with active public participation to make buildings earthquake-resistant and deployment of civil defence, home guard and disaster relief volunteers in event of an earthquake was also discussed in the meeting.
LG and the CM asked officers to present a comprehensive plan of action within a month and to have them ready for implementation well in advance with regard to the issue of summer heat action plan 2025 and flood management.
Those present in the meeting included Chief Secretary, Commissioner of Police, HOD and Member (NDMA), Divisional Commissioner, DG (Fire & Civil Defence) and top officials of NDRF, DDA, MCD, NDMC, PWD, Power, Health, Education Departments, DDMA and Delhi Jal Board.
