Mumbai civic body budget: ₹18.26 crore to study areas at risks from disasters

To equip Mumbai with a timely and strategic response to prominent natural and manmade disasters, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will carry out a risk assessment of all areas of the island city and its suburbs

To equip Mumbai with a timely and strategic response to prominent natural and manmade disasters, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will carry out a risk assessment of all areas of the island city and its suburbs. The seismic microzonation, tsunami atlas, and hazard vulnerability risk assessment (HVRA) will investigate the severity of the impact of such disasters on various areas, and their impact on the livelihood of citizens. It will identify threats that require a timely and coordinated response to protect lives, property and reduce socio-economic loss.

BMC Commissioner Iqbal Chahal (R) with Standing Committee chairman Yashwant Jadhav while presenting the BMC Budget 2021-22, at BMC Headquarters. (Bhushan Koyande/ Hindustan Times)

A budgetary provision of ₹18.26 crore has been made for this project, in BMC’s budget 2021-22, presented before the standing committee by municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, on Wednesday. The project has been in the planning stage for almost a year. A senior civic official from the disaster management department, who has been working on the project said, “It is in the planning stage right now, and the process has begun. It will take between six to eight months to complete the project.”

HVRA will be tied to an artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning-based decision support system (DSS). This will be an automated system that will alert the civic officials on impending disasters.

Mumbai is located in Seismic Zone III, near the Panvel seismic zone, which is known to be seismically active.