The Rs 50 crore DMAP, conceived after a massive earthquake devastated the districts of Latur and Osmanabad in September 1993, involves the co-ordination between various agencies like the entire state government machinery, police, civic bodies, railways, surface transport etc and at least on paper, looks quite foolproof.

``The entire focus has been on preparadness and quick response of various agencies to minimise the effects of any natural calamity or an accident. We cannot say that life won't be affected, but at least guarantee that the relief operations will begin within the shortest time possible once any disaster strikes,'' a senior official closelyassociated with the implementation of the DMAP said.

Under the DMAP an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) at Mantralaya, to be headed by the chief secretary or the additional chief secretary, will be operational by the end of June. The process of linking it via V-Sat satellite to 37 control rooms throughout the state is underway while the commissioning of the V-sat link of the Pune district headquarters with all the 37 control rooms has already been completed.

For Mumbai, the plan implementation differs considerably from the one adopted for the rest of the state owing to the metro's unique requirements. ``The additional chief secretary (Home), has been appointed as the chief of operations of the DMAP for Mumbai, and it will be his responsibility to ensure smooth flow of information between various agencies like the municipal corporation, police, fire brigade and railways, depending on the nature and magnitude of a disaster,'' the officer informed.

``Especially in the case of Mumbai, if the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporaton (BMC) and the police co-ordinate their operations immediately at the stage of warning about the disaster, its impact on normal life can be reduced consierably,'' he added.

The response strategy will be more or less the same for Mumbai and the rest of the state for the organisation of resources during the disaster warning stage and on the occurance of a disaster. All the ward offices and the BMC control room have been connected with the police stations and police control rooms via a VHF wireless channel and personnel have been trained to operate the same. All district collectorates in the state have also been equipped with the wireless sets for intra-district communication between the Collector, divisional officers and tehsildars.

On the lines of the highly successful disaster management plans in the West, the Maharashtra DMAP has also given great importance to television, radio and other mass media for giving periodic and precise information about a disaster to themasses.

``Calamities which occur in the West are less disastrous merely because people are kept constantly informed through the mass media. For example, if announcements about disruptions of suburban railway are made through TV and radio, lesser number of people will venture out and scenes will be less chaotic,'' he pointed out.

After the finalising of the plan, the government along with the meteorological dapartment have prepared a Geographical Information System (GIS) map of the entire state. The map includes detailed demarcation of all earthquake prone zones and identification of disaster management infrastructure like government offices, hospitals, police and fire brigade stations etc.

Based on the data fed into the computer, the first priority is to establish a comprehensive information network between these agencies and then set up a co-ordinated response strategy.

The risk analyses for the entire state has been done for earthquakes, cyclones, floods, epidemics, road accidents, fire andindustrial hazards. The DMAP has also considered the vulnerability of a particular area to a disaster taking into account the economy, poverty level, social structure, urbanisation and the infrastructure available.