With an aim to reduce the vulnerability of coastal communities to natural calamities, the State Government on Friday said it would instal an Early Warning Dissemination System (EWDS) in six coastal districts, first of its kind in the country to provide early warning to people.
Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said the Government would instal 122 towers in six coastal districts to disseminate early warnings about cyclone, tsunami and flood.
The EWDS would be commissioned in Baleswar, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada and Puri districts and would be directly controlled from the control room from the SRC’s office. The project would be implemented under the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP). The Rs 66-crore project is assisted by the World Bank.
“The tender has already been floated, and the larson and Toubro (l&T) has been assigned the work,” said Mohapatra.
He said the towers, through which warnings would be disseminated, can withstand up to 350 km/hr-wind speed.
On the day, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated 100 multipurpose flood and cyclone centres, spread over 17 districts, at the State Secretariat.
Out of the 100 projects, Puri district has highest of 20 centres, followed by Ganjam with 16, Baleswar and Khordha with 12 each, Kendrapada and Bhadrak with 10 each. Cuttack has three projects while Boudh, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur have two centres each and Bargarh one.