Fol­low­ing recent heavy mon­soon rain in the sprawl­ing and dense­ly pop­u­lat­ed Mum­bai on Indi­a’s west coast, HAMS were involved in response preparedness. 

Jayu Bhide VU2JAU, the Nation­al Coor­di­na­tor for Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tion in India, tells us that when Mum­bai was hit by rains, HAMS were deployed at var­i­ous vital locations. 

Through the Dis­as­ter Ama­teur Radio Emer­gency Ser­vices (DARES) based at Mum­bai, HAM sta­tions were set up for the Police Com­mis­sion­er, Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment for Maha­rash­tra State, and the Munic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tion of Greater Mumbai. 

Jayu VU2JAU said, “HAM sta­tions are includ­ed in the Stan­dard Oper­at­ing Pro­ce­dures in pre­pared­ness to han­dle any emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions if required.” 

Mum­bai had dis­as­trous floods in 2005 that cut all mobile and land­lines. At least 10 HAMS are involved this time, and through DARES train should there be anoth­er dis­as­ter with the loss or over­load­ing of communications. 

Jayu VU2JAU said the sit­u­a­tion was now under con­trol, rain water had reced­ed and peo­ple have start­ed mov­ing on the streets. 

He not­ed that Mum­bai HAMS have again shown they can work along­side agen­cies that have the over­all respon­si­ble for dis­as­ter plan­ning and response. Such an exam­ple could be fol­lowed by oth­er cities and local administrations. 

‑Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.