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A total of 130 cyclone shelters are being built in Andhra Pradesh, 17 of them in Visakhapatnam district, with the assistance of the World Bank, according to M. Sashidhar Reddy, the vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
He was speaking to reporters here on Thursday after visiting the cyclone-hit areas in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. He said the officials of Andhra Pradesh had done "a commendable job in evacuating people and minimising casualties due to cyclone Phailin. He also congratulated the administration for restoring 70 per cent power in the cyclone-hit Srikakulam district within days.
However, a lot needed to be done as disaster management and relief and rehabilitation had to be done at the state level, he said. "The state governments have to draw up state-specific and district-specific disaster management plans. There is a need for the administration to conduct drills on a regular basis to create awareness among the stakeholders. The drills will ensure that people and the administration are geared to face any natural calamity," he said.
Referring to the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project being taken up with assistance of the World Bank, he said the project should be completed by 2015 and it involved taking up construction of cyclone shelters and also building all-weather roads connecting coastal villages with main roads.
He said the cyclone had left the power distribution infrastructure in Odisha in shambles and it would take 15 days more for normalcy to be restored. He urged the Governments to go for underground power cables in coastal areas to minimise the damage and said that such projects could be taken up under the World Bank funded National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project.
Sashidhar Reddy said the state governments had the habit of exaggerating the losses to claim greater relief amounts from the Centre. "Guidelines have been drawn up on the procedure of claims and this should be followed meticulously," he said.
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