The ministry has further stated that it was intensifying the rescue and relief providing operations considering that an eight Richter scale quake might occur in Kathmandu valley and neighboring districts.
Rameshwar Dangal, Chief at the Disaster Management Division informed that the Ministry had already formed a separate disaster management battalion in the Nepal Police and disaster management training was imparted to the Armed Police Force aiming to tackle such natural disasters.
About four million people live in the Kathmandu valley and the settlements are unmanaged and impassable. There are about 230,000 houses in the Kathmandu metropolitan city itself therefore it is challenging to conduct immediate rescue operations if any disaster hit the city.
Division chief Dangal added that 83 open places were declared as special zone to the quake affected people for their temporary settlements in the valley and drinking water and other food items were also managed for them.
He further informed that a humanitarian support cell was set up at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) three months ago while such cells were set up at Khumaltar and Tribhuvan University premises at Kirtipur. Similarly, such cell is prepared to be constructed in Bhaktapur as well.
Division chief Dangal said that the Ministry had implemented the National Disaster Response Modality in course of receiving foreign supports at times of such natural disasters. He added that there was a Multinational Army Coordination Centre under the Nepal Army to coordinate among the foreign army in course of rescue operations.
The Ministry has stated that it was able to carry out the rescue operations with the necessary safety equipments in 24 hours due to the activeness of the National Emergency Rescue Centre under the Ministry. In addition to it, the District Emergency Rescue Centres have been set up in different 55 districts so far for the same.
It is stated that managing the tents for the quake affected and displaced people was challenging as only 20,000 sets of tents were with Red Cross and other agencies.
Likewise, the Ministry stated that it was planning to supply the food items stocked at the Nepal Food Corporation Depot which has been kept for SAARC food security bank.
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