Bengaluru civic teams begin setting up disaster response teams as monsoon approaches

As the monsoon season approaches, all five companies are being equipped with rapid response teams, regular night teams, crane teams and regular canopy management teams to ensure that rain-related damage is minimal and strengthen immediate response to citizens’ complaints.

According to the documents accessed HinduThe city will benefit from the services of 30 regular tree canopy management teams, 25 rapid response teams, 11 regular night teams and 18 crane teams. Each team will consist of eight people. Additionally, companies under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) have identified 13 temporary timber yards. Companies also supply the necessary machinery to deal with debris-related situations.

There are currently 27 regular tree cover management teams, one rapid response team and two regular night teams.

The move follows recent rains that caused significant destruction in the city, including uprooting 515 trees and breaking more than 1,500 branches. Manpower shortage became evident during the rains as it took companies almost a week to repair the damage.

According to a GBA source, the delay in repairing the damage occurred despite the intervention of multiple teams, including the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP).

“Many traffic police stations have tree cutting machines and other safety equipment. BTP was also busy cutting down fallen branches when necessary, but this was limited to places where disruption was severe and required immediate attention,” the source said.

Additionally, GBA had to deploy logging and management teams from different regions.

“Last time, tree felling crews even worked through the night to clear the debris. The problem was that there were no trained personnel to cut trees, so we had to bring in crews from different areas. Otherwise, we would have needed a few more days to clear the debris.”

According to officials, tenders were opened for the establishment of teams for management and technical offers were also received. Technical review continues to finalize the tenders. Once the process is completed, tree canopy management teams will begin work to remove dangerous trees and branches.

Meanwhile, existing tree management teams are identifying dangerous trees and branches in the city and their reports will be reviewed by the forest cell before such trees are cleared. So far the forest cell has cleared 1,200 trees that were hollow or diseased, sensitive to strong winds and rain.

In addition, companies are also identifying locations in their area where they will set up a dedicated control room to deal with flooding complaints.