The Delhi Government’s Directorate of Civil Defence on Friday conducted testing of an air raid siren in the national Capital amid rising tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.
The testing of the siren followed the Delhi Government’s direction that all 11 districts of the Capital need to deploy air raid sirens, including manual and electrical, at important and critical locations and conduct trials.
The drill began at 3 pm and sirens were sounded at least twice for 15-20 minutes each. However, it was noticed by people that the sound of the first round of siren testing was low and some did not even notice it. People were also instructed to take shelter, preferably in the basement of buildings.
Officials said that this was a drill to keep everything prepared in case of an untoward incident. “Accordingly, it is requested that adequate publicity may be made through social and electronic media so that the general public are advised to stay calm and not to panic
during the said exercise,” the order signed by district magistrate (Central) G. Sudhakar reads.
The Station House Officer (SHO) in Daryaganj also made public announcements on Friday morning saying: “Today, at 3 pm, there will be checking of air raid sirens at PWD HQ. The sirens will be heard at a radius of 4 km. Do not panic since this is only checking. Later on, whenever we use this, it would be a warning sign. But not today”
Delhi police teams were deployed to check the preparedness of the staff as well as equipment, an officer said.
After the testing, Delhi PWD minister Parvesh Verma, who was present at the PWD building, said air raid sirens will be installed at multiple high-rise buildings across the national Capital. He said, “The work of installing sirens in Delhi has started. Sirens will be installed on all the high-rise buildings in Delhi. Its range is 8km. Starting tonight, 40-50 more sirens will be installed in high-rise buildings in Delhi. We will run it in case of any emergency. We can run it from a single command centre...”
Officials said New Delhi district will conduct similar testing of air raid sirens at the NDMC Palika Kendra building in the evening between 6 pm and 7 pm, said an officer. The South West district, meanwhile, has installed manual and electrical sirens at BPCL, Bijwasan, Vegas Mall Dwarka, Uttam Nagar police station, Dwarka Mor Metro station, India Gandhi Hospital in Dwarka Sector 10, Dwarka Sector 21 Metro station, and Najafgarh SDM office.
According to officials, the 11 district administrations in Delhi will conduct the trials at different timings in the evening and check the response from the departments concerned. Officials said the Delhi Government has decided to procure 500 sirens to be installed across the city and train 1,800 Aapda Mitras (friends for disaster management) through an agency suggested by the National Disaster Management Authority.
