Russia offers to set up disaster crisis centre

Russia has offered to help India establish a National Disaster and Crisis Management Centre, the government informed Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

During the visit of the Indian delegation headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram, Russia had highlighted the need to rapidly concertise cooperation under the Inter Governmental Agreement on Disaster Management signed in December 2010 and urged early setting up of the joint commission envisaged under it, Minister of State for Home Mullapally Ramachandran said.

"Russia further offered to help India establish a National Disaster and Crisis Management Centre. The details of the proposal for setting up a crisis management centre in the country are being ascertained," he said in Lok Sabha while replying a question.

The Russian National Crisis Management Centre carries out operational management of on-duty forces in emergency situations and ensures population warning in case of major accidents and disasters.

It further integrates the unified information network of all the structures involved in emergency prevention, forecasting and response.

The Russian Emergency and Disaster Management Command Centre (EMERCOM) deploys GLONASS signals.