A mock tsunami drill will be held in four villages of Thane district in Maharashtra tomorrow, officials said here today. Thane District Additional Collector Kishore Jadhav said that as per the directions of the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre. The four villages include Chowk (Thane), Arnala (Vasai), Palm (Palghar) and Chikle (Dahanu). Drill will be held from morning.
The purpose of the exercise is to increase preparedness, test warning systems, evaluate response capabilities, etc "Along with 20 Indian ocean nations, India is participating in this Indian ocean-wide mock tsunami drill tomorrow that is aimed at testing the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWS)," Jadhav said.
This drill, organised under the auspices of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, also aims at evaluating the system's operational capacity, the efficiency of communications among the different concerned actors, and the state of preparation of national emergency services.
The test will also include the evacuation of coastal communities. At the national level, this drill is being coordinated by Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
The Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC) will participate in this drill, both in its capacity as National Tsunami Warning Centre (NTWC) for India as well as one of the RTSPs for the Indian Ocean region. During the drill, ITEWC will generate and issue 15 tsunami bulletins to both its National & Regional (IOTWS) contacts through GTS,email, fax, SMS as well as web.
