Maharashtra government joins hands with IIT-Bombay to deal with earthquake

Palghar (Maharashtra) [India], Feb 8 (ANI): Maharashtra government has joined hands with IIT-Bombay to put in place a mechanism to deal effectively with the consequences arising out of an earthquake in the state, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Friday.

The development assumes significance in view of the fact that as many as 40 earthquake tremors have rocked the region so far since November last year.

Four seismological recording instruments have been installed in the region and the data collected from these equipment would be shared with the centres at Delhi and Hyderabad.

"We have tied up with the IIT-Bombay to find out what effective measures can be taken to minimise the suffering on account of earthquake. Our teams are active and all necessary steps are being taken," said Fadnavis.

"Tents and tarpaulins have been made available in adequate quantity. Schools, hostels and other buildings which are damaged or have developed cracks due to the quake are being worked upon," he said.

He said that as many as 17 villages with 15,000 houses are adversely affected due to the earthquake. "Our emphasis is on converting these structures into earthquake-prone structures. For this purpose, apart from making new structures, the retrofitting work is undertaken in old buildings," he said.

The Chief Minister said that there would be no shortage of funds for the authorities including NDRF, disaster management and district administration to deal with any situation.

Three earthquakes measuring 4.1, 3.6 and 3.5 on the Richter scale hit the district on February 1 at 2:06 pm, 3:53 pm and 4:57 pm respectively. Following the earthquakes, people residing in the hilltop areas of the district came out of their houses.

According to the National Center of Seismology (NCS), the region has been experiencing such tremors regularly since November last year. On December 12, 2018, a temporary field station was installed at Vedanta hospital in Palghar district for close monitoring of earthquake activity.

Subsequently, on January 25, 2019, two more temporary field stations were installed at Dongripada, near Ashagarh, and Talasari in Palghar district. (ANI)

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