Training facility for SDRF & Technical Assistance and Capacity Building for Disaster Risk Management

To finance a permanent physical training facility that will help impart specialized trainings to SDRF personnel as well as police, firemen, and local communities to strengthen the State’s disaster response capacity to respond to disasters, most of which are linked to climate change. Specialized training will focus on the needs of the State’s priorities: collapsed structures, medical first response, mountaineering and high altitude, and water search and rescue.

The objective of this component is to enhance the capabilities of SDRF, other government entities and others in improving preparedness and response. SDRF has been equipped with requisite latest equipment under The World Bank assisted Uttarakhand Disaster Recovery Project (UDRP), each member of SDRF has been provided with an individual disaster kit in order to take control of an emergency situation. Due to availability of latest search and rescue equipment provided by the World Bank, SDRF has been established as a visible and reliable response force to provide specialized response during disaster. In a short span of three years since its inception, SDRF has shown professional expertise in its operations and emerged as an indispensable disaster response force. Due to the exceptional work carried out by SDRF in last three years, there is a growing demand from the citizens, public representatives across the State for deployment of SDRF teams in their respective areas. The success achieved by the SDRF force is truly attributed to the high morale and motivation of the SDRF personnel. All the members of this force are on deputation from Uttarakhand Civil Police, Armed Police, Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) and Fire Service etc. for a period of 3 to 5 years. At present there are four (04) companies in SDRF battalion and the sanctioning process for another three (03) companies is underway. SDRF currently has a strength of 590 personnel, After addition of 3 more companies to this team, the total strength will become 1222 number of trained personnel with this the Uttarakhand State Disaster Response Force will become one of its kind of single largest stand-alone disaster response force of the Nation. This component would entail the following tasks: As the men in SDRF are drawn from the regular Civil Police, Fire Services, Police Telecom Services etc. on deputation basis for 3 to 5 years so training of SDRF personnel is a continuous process. The aim is to eventually train the entire Police force which is of the strength of 27000 personnel. The seismic vulnerability, terrain and climatic conditions of the State make it prone to frequent emergency situations so the requirement of trained personnel to handle such situations is very high in numbers and availability of police force will be ensured through its out posts in remote areas which is situated everywhere in the State including remotely located far flung areas. Further it is also envisaged to do extensive capacity building of the other population as well such as local citizens and other semi government, private organizations to make them better prepared to face unforeseen natural disasters as well as manmade disasters. A need therefore arises to create a permanent infrastructure which can act as a centre of excellence in imparting such capacity building and training courses as well as refresher courses in disaster preparedness, response and relief. This facility will also provide refresher courses and knowledge update modules in modern techniques and equipment in the field of Disaster Management. The facility is planned to cater to simultaneously for imparting training and capacity building to approximate 1500 personnel in a year. It could also be used as a training resource centre for other organizations.