Representatives of 5 BIMSTEC countries will attend Disaster

Representatives from five BIMSTEC countries will attend the three-day 'Disaster Management Exercise, 2020' that will start here from Tuesday.

"Five member countries namely Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Nepal will participate in the exercise. However, Bhutan and Thailand are not participating in the exercise," NDRF chief S N Pradhan and OSDMA MD P K Jena told reporters here on Monday.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will inaugurate the event here Tuesday, while Union Minister of State for Home Nityananda Rai will launch the field training exercise on February 12 at Ramchandi Beach in Puri district, they said.

The three-day long exercise will consist of inaugural session and table top exercise (TTx) on collapsed structure in Bhubaneswar.

The field training exercise (FTx) on acquatic disaster response with focus on cultural heritage sites to be held at Ramnchandi beach followed by proceeding of disaster management exercise and policy meeting of NDMA/NDMOs among the teams of participating nations on February 13, they said.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is hosting the '2nd BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise-2020' with the theme "A cultural heritage site that suffers severe damage in the earthquake and flooding or storm" at Bhubaneswar and Puri.

The objective of the exercise is to test the existing emergency procedures for notification, preparedness and emergency response, during a major earthquake and flood scenarios. This exercise will also provide an opportunity to enhance the coordination and cooperation involving multi- agency operations in an earthquake, flooding and storm surge, they said.

Asked about the selection of Odisha as its venue, Pradhan said: "Odisha has been selected in view of the states experience and success in tackling disasters in the past and also because it has a number of heritage sites".