Operation Abhyaas: How Delhi simulated a city under siege in mega defence drill

NEW DELHI: Operation Abhyaas, a mega civil defence drill, was conducted at 55 locations in the capital on Wednesday, simulating various scenarios such as air raids, fires and rescue operations, among others.As sirens blared, personnel fromdisaster management, police, fire and health, rushed people to safer places and administered medical aid to the injured. At most places, the drill started at 4pm and concluded within an hour. As part of the drill, the New Delhi Municipal Council implemented a complete power blackout for 15 minutes from 8pm, while power was also cut for a few minutes in areas around the 55 locations where the drill was conducted.The drill was conducted at schools, colleges, hospitals, Delhi Metro stations, govt installations, shopping malls, residential pockets and commercial areas that see heavy footfall. Some of these included Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Rohini Sector 18-19 metro station, Select City Walk mall in Saket, Fortis Hospital in Shalimar Bagh, MCD Civic Centre, Wazirabad water treatment plant, Chandni Chowk market, NDMC office on Sansad Marg, Central Market Lajpat Nagar, DLF Capital Greens housing society at Moti Nagar and the Saket district courts complex.According to govt officials, over 12,000 personnel from the Civil Defence, police, fire service and health department along with NCC cadets, participated in the drill. Earlier, 660 schools conducted security drills and awareness programmes to prepare students for emergency situations. Officials said the training of school students was a crucial component of the exercise and would be replicated in other schools in the coming weeks."Kids have no knowledge of an air strike or a blackout. We imparted knowledge about these and the basic protocol that needs to be followed in such scenarios," said an official. "Awareness generation and training of people, which we call capacity building, has to be widespread."Awareness videos prepared by the National Disaster Management Authority and DDMA on what needs to be done during a blackout and air raids were uploaded on social media, which, officials claimed, were watched by lakhs of people. Another official said that 1,800 Aapda Mitras, who are trained in disaster management, helped in the drill on Wednesday."We will now conduct advanced training for the Aapda Mitras for hostile attacks and upgrade their skills in the next few days so they can act as frontline warriors in such situations," said the official. "To make our volunteers better equipped, there will be a focus on procuring specialised sirens that will be centrally controlled, and other gear, apart from the formation of advanced quick response teams."NDMC said in a statement that a complete power blackout lasting 15 minutes was implemented in area under its purview at 8pm. Even streetlights were doused. Only Rashtrapati Bhawan, Prime Minister's House and four hospitals were exempted. "Since the metro runs underground in the area, we decided not to bring it in under the purview of the blackout," said an official.Officials said notifications were sent to all consumers two hours prior to the blackout. "They were requested to cooperate and make arrangements for an emergency situation. We are thankful to the RWAs and market associations who circulated the message among the masses and made the drill successful," said an official.Connaught Place, Khan Market, Sarojini Nagar and Bengali Market took extra initiatives, asking shopkeepers to switch off emergency lights even as many shops chose to down shutters before 8pm. "The street hawkers too decided not to light their battery lights," claimed the official.