Disaster cover for D-day
29 Sep 2007, 0046 hrs IST ,TNN

BANGALORE: It's finally happening. On Saturday, when around 55,000 cricket fans throng the Chinnaswamy cricket stadium, Incident Command Post (ICP) will be ready to face any eventuality. A group involving 14 different civic and security departments in the disaster management team, will monitor the event from 9 am till the event winds up. The Bangalore urban district administration, under the guidance of the National Disaster Management Authority, has decided to set up this command post at the stadium. The team will act upon any kind of disaster at the premises instantly. The administration has a first to its credit with this. This is for the first time in the history of Indian cricket that a disaster management endeavour is being undertaken by a district administration, says deputy commissioner M A Sadiq. "Events attracting huge crowd may also attract any kind of disaster. It thus becomes important to undertake this exercise in order to prevent, manage and mitigate possible tragedies," the chief disaster controller said. Departments involved in this scheme are revenue, BBMP, police (law and order, traffic and control room), fire, bomb disposal and detection squad, department of health and family welfare, BWSSB, Bescom, department of information, department of medical education and Tejus Crisis and Trauma Foundation, an NGO. As a part of the emergency needs of the exercise, the district administration will ensure arrangement of 10 beds for first aid, 10 doctors to attend on the spot, 15 paramedical staff and 10 ambulances would be made available at the venue. In addition to this, about 200 beds will be reserved at 10 different hospitals across the city. Security meeting: The city police held a meeting on security with the KSCA office bearers. The spectators are allowed inside the stadium from 10.30 am and children below three years are not allowed. "Water bottles, boxes, bags and crackers are not allowed inside the stadium. Everybody will have to pass through metal detector and people who come with restricted baggage will be sent back, DCP (central) B N S Reddy said.