Bhubaneswar: The coronavirus scare has dampened the BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise 2020 ( BIMSTEC DMEx- 2020), to be started from Tuesday.
Two of the countries Bhutan and Thailand are not participating in the Exercise due to coronavirus scare.
The director general NDRF, Satya Narayan Pradhan, at a presser admitted that the two countries are not joining the exercise. When asked are the participants are not coming due to coronavirus scare, he said that perhaps due to travel advisory of their countries has prevented their coming to India. He, however, confirmed that participants of five member countries namely Bangladesh, India, Mayanmar, Sri Lanka and Nepal are participating in this exercise.
Addressing a joint presser along with the Odisha Special Relief Commissioner and managing director of OSDAMA, Pradip Jena, the NDRF DG said that the Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik will inaugurate the three-day BIMSTE DMEx-2020, here on Tuesday. The union minister of state for home, Nityanand Rai, will launch the exercise at Ramchandi Beach on Konark Marine Drive on Wednesday.
The three-day long exercise will consist of inaugural session and table top exercise (TTx) on collapsed structure at Hotel Mayfair in Bhubaneswar on Monday. The field training exercise(FTx) on aquatic disaster response with focus on cultural heritage at Ramchandi Beach on Wednesday will be followed by proceedings of disaster exercise and policy meeting of NDMA/ NDMOs among the teams of participating nations would be held on Wednesday.
