Bhubaneswar, Jan 17: Special Relief Commissioner Bishnupada Sethi on Wednesday reviewed the progress of implementation of the Early Warning Dissemination System (EWDS) project with ADMs, BDOs of coastal districts and senior officials of the concerned departments to sort out various issues as the state is all set to commisison it by March 2018.
The EWDS is the first of its kind automatic public address system in the country.
It will help the state to warn a vast population residing along its coast from the state headquarters through loud sirens from towers installed at 122 locations, in the event of the occurrence of natural disasters like a tsunami or a cyclone.
Some of the technical features of the project include satellite based mobile data voice terminals (SBMDVT), digital mobile radio (DMR), mass messaging system to be operated from the state emergency operation centre and universal communication interface to allow inter operability among different communication technologies like VHF, HF, Ham Radio, DMR, Mobile Phone, Land Line etc.
Alert Siren System at 122 locations near the coast (within 1.5 km approximately) will cover Tourist Places, Fish Landing Centres and entire coastal habitations.
Early Warning Dissemination System (EWDS) for Last Mile Connectivity is being implemented under Component-A of World Bank supported NCRM Project.
It aims at establishing a fool-proof communication system to address the existing gap of disseminating disaster warning up to the community level.
Being implemented in 22 blocks under 6 coastal districts (Balasore, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Puri and Ganjam), the cost of the project is 100% grant in favour of the State by Government of India through World Bank. Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) cost for 3rd, 4th and 5th year will be borne under State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).
Sethi requested all the concerned departments and officials to complete all the pending works in a war footing basis. While power supply to the alert towers to be provided out of existing connections, at Fish Landing Centres, where no Government official is available, a responsible person from fishermen society need to be identified to look after upkeep of communication equipment, he said.
At community buildings, a responsible person from community to be identified. Similarly he said the concerned Departments will have to indicate the names of the officials/ teachers to be in charge of EWDS equipment installed in Schools, Panthanivas, FLCs, Anganwadi Centres, GP Offices and Police Stations.
The representatives from TCIL, Departments of Fisheries and ARD, ET &T, School & Mass Education, Energy, Tourism, PR & DW, Home present in the meeting assured full cooperation for early completion.
The State Executive Committee in its meeting held yesterday under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi had extended of the completion date of project to 31 March 2018.