Mock disaster drill at Kolkata Metro stations

An exercise, in the wake of Jaipur blasts, to fine-tune the response system while alerting passengers

— Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

SIMULATED ATTACK: A team of the National Disaster Management Authority, with fire brigade, medical and Railway Police Force personnel, demonstrating how to combat a terrorist attack, at the Chandni Chowk Metro Rail station in Kolkata on Saturday.

KOLKATA: Sirens blared; passengers ran helter-skelter, panic writ on their faces; people lay on the ground writhing in pain and gasping for breath; police shouted eviction orders; medical staff rushed through the crowd with stretchers; and commandos took positions behind pillars, aiming their rifles at an unknown enemy.

This was the scene at the Chandni Chowk station of the city's Metro Railway early on Saturday. It was no terrorist attack but a mock disaster management drill organised by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) at two underground railway stations. The exercise caught commuters unawares, even as volunteers as 'mock commuters' mingled with the passengers to simulate an attack scene at the stations.

Later talking to journalists, NDMA member J.K. Sinha said: "Following the serial blasts in Jaipur, we have undertaken mock drill sessions to fine-tune the response system while alerting passengers." Such drills were conducted to check the preparedness of the state machinery, in the event of a terrorist attack.

"It is the first of its kind in this city," said Brigadier (retd.) B.K. Khanna, senior specialist with the NDMA. Similar drills carried out in the Delhi Metro Railway Network, in association with the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), "garnered tremendous public response."

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Railway Police Force and the Kolkata Fire Brigade assisted the NDMA in the drill.