PMFORUM Breaking News

Reported by Raju Rao in Chennai

India’s Home Ministry on Monday, December 17, 2007 approved a Rs 6 billion plan to address gaps in the management of earthquake related disasters. The concept paper prepared by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has been named National Earthquake Risk Mitigation Project (NERMP). A Home Ministry spokesman said the preparatory work for the detailed project spread over for next five years would be initiated after an approval from the Planning Commission.

The plan involves the training of engineers, builders, architects, masons and others at a new National Institute for Earthquake Management, to be set up in the Himalayan city of Dehradun. The plan also includes investment in the research and development of safe construction technology, which is low in South Asia.

The proposed project is aimed to achieve following goals:

• Capacity building of various stakeholders groups like engineers, architects, faculty members of engineering colleges, site supervisors, contractors, lead masons and masons.


• Creation of public awareness on earthquake risk and vulnerability, techno-legal regime, building safety.


• Creating an enabling techno-legal regime and its enforcement and compliance by different ministries of government of India and state governments.


• Institutional strengthening and R&D.


• Retro-fitting of lifeline structures starting with district hospitals in 229 high risk districts in seismic zones IV and V for demonstrative effect.

The National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) is a premier national organization in India working for human resource development at the national level in the area of disaster mitigation and management. The NIDM was formed in October 2003 by a Government of India order upgrading the National Centre for Disaster Management (NCDM), which was located at the Indian Institute of Public Administration in New Delhi. NIDM will be gearing up the national, state and district level administration to tackle natural calamities and will also be coordinating research projects, training programmes and will build a database on natural disasters with case studies. For additional information, visit http://www.nidm.net.

Sources: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk and http://www.nidm.net/vision.asp.

Raju Rao International Correspondent India, based in Chennai Raju Rao, PMP, is an International Correspondent for PMForum.org in Chennai, India. Mr. Rao is also principal consultant for Xtraplus Solutions, a PM consulting and training company based in Chennai. Mr. Rao has a B.Tech degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Madras, India; a Diploma in Management from the University of Bombay; an Advanced PM certificate from Stanford University; and a certificate from IIM Calcutta. Mr. Rao has over 30 years’ experience in engineering, process and project management and has been an active member of PMI for several years. He is currently a member of PMI’s OPM3 2008 Update project, and was a team member for development of several recent PMI standards. A founding member and vice president for the PMI Chennai Chapter, Raju is also a member of the PMI Pharmaceutical SIG, member and Chair of the Advisory Committee for the South India chapter of AACE International, and founder of the Indian Project Management Forum. Raju Rao lives in Chennai, India and can be contacted at rao.raju@gmail.com. Additional information about Mr. Rao can be found at http://www.pmforum.org/pm%20forum%20team/index.htm#5.