Ward 99 residents cheer as KMC gets busy restoring pond
When a JCB, deployed by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation moved into action to restore a more-than-half-filled pond this morning, it gave the residents of Ward 99 some ray of hope.
With the city being spared from the wrath of Cyclone Asani, the Met department nevertheless has warned of heavy rains in various districts of the state. Kolkata is also likely to receive rains.
While the KMC, city airport and the fire department taking measures to tackle any eventuality, city police headquarters Lalbazar is also on its guard and is leaving nothing for chance.
In a bid to get its act together in a well-coordinated manner, should any exigency arise due to cyclone, it has put in place a unified command centre (UCC), comprising officials of NDRF, civil defence, PWD (public works department) and Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).
Advertisement
Elucidating the details on how the UCC would function, an officer at Lalbazar said that apart from having the unified command centre, a special control room too was commissioned at Lalbazar on Tuesday to monitor the situation unfolding vis-à-vis Asani, which would unlikely to have any landfall, according to the weather office.
The control room, said the officer would function like a war room as officials from various departments would be present there, devising strategy and sharing views to expedite action on the ground when it comes to deal with emergency situations like evacuation or any form of rescue operation.
The Kolkata Police has also released the helpline number for the citizens. The number is: 033-2214-1890. An officer said that if anybody does require any help due to rains, they should dial the number and action would follow.
In Kolkata, 15 teams of civil defence and two teams of NDRF have been kept ready. In South Bengal alone, about 12 teams of NDRF have been mobilized, informed sources.
Advertisement
