7,000 houses in the coastal villages of Puducherry prone to disaster

Puducherry has never ever witnessed the rage of Tsunami than that happened in 2006. The natural calamity has been an alarm for the government to safeguard the public against such disasters in future.

Recently in a survey conducted by the Revenue Department of Puducherry it is stated that approximately 7000 houses in the coastal villages of Puducherry and karaikal region are prone to any damage by sea surge.

Since there is a lack of space in the Union Territory, it is tough to rehabilitate majority of the houses in the coastal villages. Vulnerable areas are identifies based on the past incidents and damages caused to the civil locality.

One of the leading news daily The Hindu reported, “The survey conducted in the Union Territory as part of the disaster management programme revealed that around 7,000 houses in 15 coastal villages of Puducherry came within 500-meter-high tide area and were “extremely vulnerable to the vagaries of weather.”

Officials in the Revenue Department said the dwelling units in the coastal villages of Karaikal region were located in a safe distance with a majority of the houses being relocated above 500 meters from the shore as part of the Tsunami Rehabilitation Programme.”
The government has planned for a new rehabilitation programme named “Reconstruction In-situ” which will provide disaster resistant houses in the existing places, early warning system and safe escape routes for villages.

The Secretary-cum-Collector G. Thevaneethidhas said to the press that the government had approached the World Bank for an assistance of Rs 240 crore to implement the programme. We planned to involve the beneficiaries in the entire programme even from the design of the houses to its execution. The government would only provide the technical assistance.