DDMA conducts mock drills in Delhi for earthquake and chemical hazard preparedness

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Friday conducted “Exercise Suraksha Chakra” — a mock drill across Delhi to gauge the Earthquake and Chemical Hazard preparedness of emergency services across the capital.

The exercise with a simulated earthquake was conducted at 55 locations, including schools, hospitals, industrial areas, markets, government offices, metro infrastructure, and vulnerable urban settlements.

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According to the official document, the drill focused on validating the Incident Response System (IRS) at State, District, and site levels; testing the SEOC activation and inter-agency coordination protocols; assessing readiness of emergency medical services, fire response units, chemical leak protocols, and public warning systems; identifying institutional gaps and areas needing systemic strengthening.

The exercise was aimed at testing and improving preparedness of the response mechanism, communication systems, and coordination between various local authorities and emergency services in the event of a high magnitude earthquake followed by chemical disaster.

More than 20 stakeholder departments, including Delhi Police, Fire Services, Health & Family Welfare, Revenue, Education, DJB, MCD, Transport, PWD, Civil Defence, Home Guards, Private hospitals, RWAs, school authorities, metro staff, and market associations, participated in Friday’s exercise.

Chemical disaster response was also simulated at industrial clusters and godowns in selected locations across West, North-East, and South-West Delhi. For receiving live updates, media reports, and coordinating the emergency responses, State Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) remained operational throughout the day, providing field reports and situation assessments in real-time via webcasting, mobile teams, and control room coordination, a press statement said.

Staging areas were operationalized to receive the responders and form “Task Forces” to combat the earthquake disaster. In addition, Relief Camps were also activated to cater for the displaced persons in the event of an earthquake.