Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has set up an Emergency Operation Center with state-of-the-art technology to conduct emergency response and rescue activities during natural disasters and emergencies. Mayor Md. Atiqul Islam inaugurated the emergency operation center on the 2nd floor of Nagar Bhavan on Monday (October 31) afternoon. A team of 314 members participating in DREE Bangladesh-2022 (Disaster Response Exercise & Exchange) was present during the inauguration of the Emergency Center. This team includes 53 senior officers of the army of 27 countries, members of the Bangladesh Armed Forces and representatives of various NGOs.
During the inauguration, DNCC Mayor Md. Atiqul Islam said, ‘Response and rescue operations will be conducted from the Emergency Command Center. It will operate as a central command center regularly throughout the year. From this center, various sensors including waterlogging spot, movement tracking of garbage trucks and anti-mosquito workers and all Dhaka app complaints, revenue, canals, footpaths and footover bridges, escalators, STS, smart street lights will be monitored. The center will play a role in delivering civic services to the common man at the earliest and reducing public suffering.’
The DNCC Mayor mentioned that if the city dwellers report any problem through the Dhaka App, they will get quick remedy from the Emergency Operation Center.
The mayor added, ‘We constantly face many challenges. Although natural calamities like earthquakes and cyclones are not frequent, we are constantly working on waterlogging, mosquito hotspots, drains, waste, roads, public toilets, parks, street lights, and more. DNCC will manage everything through networking system using CC cameras and technology. Mayor Md Atiqul Islam also said that if there is waste anywhere in the city, if street lights are off, if mosquito hotspots are found, if there is any problem in park grounds and public toilets, all the information will come through the command center and the relevant departments will take quick action.
Mayor Atiqul Islam called the people to be involved in the command center and said, ‘We can provide services quickly only if everyone cooperates by giving information and complaints. People have to take this responsibility. If the people are involved along with the mayor, councilors and officials of DNCC, it will be possible to solve the problems of the city easily.’
It may be noted that an Emergency Operation Center (EOC) has been established on the 2nd floor of DNCC under the Urban Resilience Project (URP) funded by the World Bank. Which includes the following hardware: 3 sets of video wall systems (VWS), total 54 pcs screens, each VWS contains 18 pcs 55″ wall screens, each wall is 6x3matrix which means 5 screens width and 3 screens height, each wall is about 24 feet wide and 7 feet high, controller, transmitter and receiver for VWS, wall management software, EOC premise video surveillance facility, 32 IP cameras, network video, recorder, video data storage, video monitoring station, video management software, with 70 terabyte storage capacity Storage Area Network (SAN) – future upgradeable up to 3 PB, servers, routers, firewalls and switches, 100 Mbps Internet connection to EOC.
The Principal Staff Officer of the Armed Forces Department Lt. Gen. Walker-uz-Zaman was present on the occasion. DNCC Chief Executive Officer Md Salim Reza, Chief Health Officer Brig Gen Md Zobaidur Rahman, Chief Engineer Brig Gen Md Amirul Islam, Chief Waste Management Officer Commodore SM Sharif-ul Islam and senior officials were also present.
