The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : No disaster management plan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 10, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

No disaster management plan

Abhijit Dev Kumar and M. Sai Gopal

No reason why it took two hours to move emergency equipment

Hyderabad: A proper disaster management plan was found wanting at the Punjagutta flyover site after the accident occurred. If the initial confusion after the pre-fabricated segments crashed was understandable, there was no reason why it had to take a good two hours to get the emergency equipment and vehicles closer to the disaster site.

Traffic jam

While those within the vicinity rescued and immediately sent a couple of injured to hospitals, it took a while for the police and other agencies to rush to the place due to traffic jams and heavy rain.

Scores of people thronged the place after TV channels started flashing the news.

With hardly any space left on the service road near the Himalaya Book Depot because of the iron scaffoldings and pre-fabricated concrete segments debris, it became extremely difficult for any big cranes or ambulances to reach the precise spot.

To compound matters, huge slabs used as road dividers came in the way.

A traffic towing vehicle was the first to reach the site but it was useless. Nothing happened for a while except for politicians and officials rushing to the site.

A large number of people who had come to have a glimpse of the ghastly scene made it difficult to take up relief and rescue operations.

After a while, some civic officials showed presence of mind to send out the traffic towing vehicle and call in poclains.

The poclains moved the road divider stones aside and gave space for big cranes and ambulances to get closer to the site. Soon, police teams started clearing the site of curious onlookers and the media personnel too were asked to move to a safe distance.

Emergency teams

Special emergency teams from different agencies also started trooping in with ropes, gas cutters, ambulances and fire engines and assisted in the rescue operations.

At about 10 p.m., the huge crane which actually does the job of lifting the segments managed to weave near the crash site to life the scaffoldings. With neither the police nor civic officials unable to give a correct picture about either the injured or the dead till late in the night, there were rumours that many got killed and some more were trapped in the vehicles crushed underneath.

Naidu visits site

Former Chief Minster N. Chandrababu Naidu was also among those who came to the site after Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy who made a quick survey and left the place.

Director General of Police M.A. Basith, Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh, GHMC Commissioner and Special Officer C.V.S.K. Sarma and others were present to supervise salvage operations.

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