Earthquake is a destructive natural event and accounts to tremendous loss of reduce the vulnerability of this uncontrollable and unpredictable hazard by having a greater understanding about its causes and effects.  As per the latest seismic zoning map brought out by the Bureau of Indian Standards, over 65% of the country is prone to earthquakes of intensity MSK VII or more. Some of the most intense earthquakes of the world have occurred in India, but fortunately, none of these have occurred in any of the major cities.  India has highly populous cities including the national capital of New Delhi, located in zones high seismic risk. Typically, the majority of the constructions in these cities are not earthquake resistant. Thus any earthquake striking in one of these cities would turn into a major disaster. It is most important in the medium and long term to formulate strategies to

 The Programme

The programme envisages strengthening capacities of communities, urban local bodies and the administration in mitigati on, preparedness and response across 38 cities in the country having population above half a million and falling under seismic zone III, IV and V. The programme would demonstrate suitable model for mainstreaming of earthquake risk management initiatives at all levels and help reduce seismic risk in the most earthquake -prone urban areas in India.  Learning from this initiative will feed into the national capacity building programme of the GOI and help mainstream training in disaster management in all regular training programmes of the Government.

UEVRP in Dhanbad

Dhanbad has been chosen as one of the cities for the implementation of the UEVRP as the city falls in seismic zone III. The project is being implemented by the District Administration of Dhanbad since the year 2004 and is proposed till December 2008.