Bhubaneswar: An Inter Ministerial Central team arrived in Odisha to make field visit to cyclone Yaas affected four districts to access the damage.
The seven member team headed by Ministry of Home Affairs Joint Secretary Sunil Kumar Barnwal arrived here at the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) here on Sunday evening. Four Odia officers are there in the Central team, sources said.
The team is scheduled to visit Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapada and Mayurbhanj districts on Monday and Tuesday to assess the damages occurred due to the cyclone Yaas that hit North Odisha coast on 26 May morning.
The entire team will be divided into two sub-teams and each sub-team will visit two districts in the next two days, said a member of the Central team here.
Before leaving for New Delhi, the team members will have a meeting with Chief Secretary SC Mahapatra and Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) PK Jena.
On 28 May, after undertaking an aerial survey of the cyclone-hit areas of the State, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced to send a Central team.
The Odisha Government has pegged the post-cyclone damage at Rs 610 crore. Of this, Rs 520 crore is loss to government infrastructure and Rs 90 crore is damage to private properties.
The PM has already announced Rs 500 crore financial assistance for immediate relief activities in Odisha after holding a review meeting with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and other officials.
At the meeting Mr.Patnaik has raised demand for a permanent solution to deal with the natural disasters especially cyclones.
“Sought assistance for long term measures to make Odisha disaster resilient as we are frequented by such climate hazards every year. Highlighted Odisha’s demand for disaster resilient power infrastructure and resilient coastal protection with storm surge resilient embankments,” Patnaik said after the meeting.
Therefore, the state government is most likely to press its demand for disaster resilient resilience power system including underground cabling with modern technology for electricity supply which can well withstand the cyclone and other natural disasters.
Modern infrastructure for long-term coastal security to deal with 7-8 metres high tides which affect the coastal areas during cyclone.
In June last year, in the aftermath of cyclone Amphan, state had submitted a memorandum to the Centre asking to provide an assistance of about Rs 16,000-crore for the creation of a disaster-resilient infrastructure in the state. While Rs 11,114 crore was sought to strengthen power distribution transmission networks in coastal areas, Rs 4,152 crore for housing sector, Rs 767 crore to strengthen coastal embankments.