New Town Strengthens Resilience with Dedicated Disaster Management Units

According to a New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) official, the three action areas will each have three disaster management units established by the New Town authorities.

In New Town, the NKDA offers civic services.

According to a senior NKDA official, the decision to assign three teams to each action area was made with the knowledge that the city frequently experiences strong thunderstorms.

The official stated, "We have chosen to have three teams for New Town that can be called into action in case of any disaster, particularly storms at very short notice."

Storms frequently leave a path of devastation in Calcutta. On May 27, Cyclone Remal made landfall in the city, uprooting at least 120 trees in the process.

Each of these units, according to the NKDA official, will be outfitted with power-cutting equipment including electric chainsaws, hydraulic earthmovers, payloaders, dump trucks, and staff who are trained to be deployed in the event of cyclones and thunderstorms.

According to the official, these teams can also be called upon to support emergency services departments and other first responders like the fire department in the event that a crisis occurs.

Every team member will be positioned at the NKDA offices located in Action Areas I, II, and III, where sufficient parking can be secured.

The official stated, "These teams will form the core of the disaster management unit and more manpower can be deployed if necessary depending on the storm's scale."

One thing that sets New Town apart from the rest of the city is the lack of steel-framed advertising panels permitted by the government, and the majority of the street furniture, including street lighting, is cable-free overhead.

Advertising is not permitted on the Main Arterial Road. Even in the alleyways off the main thoroughfare, there are strict regulations in place, according to an NKDA representative.

This is one of the reasons lamp poles don't collapse because the weight of the cables that surround them isn't bearing down on them.

According to a global assessment (XDI's Gross Domestic Climate Risk) released recently, West Bengal is expected to rank 60th out of over 2,600 locations assessed globally by 2050 in terms of climate risk.