Jammu, Jul 3 (PTI) The Vaishno Devi shrine board will carry out regular mock drills to equip it disaster management teams to deal with any unforeseen situation effectively, officials said here.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board chaired by its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ramesh Kumar, to review various aspects of disaster management preparedness for the annual pilgrimage, they said.

The shrine board CEO emphasised that the mock drills be carried out at regular intervals so that disaster management teams of the board and all other stakeholders respond to any disaster situation forthwith.

He said that the fire and emergency services department will be approached for conducting fire audit of the track and the shrine area.

Kumar added that once the situation created by the Covid pandemic normalises, training workshops will be organised for the staff of the board.

The functioning of joint control rooms at Bhawan, Adhkuwari and Katra, and various other components of disaster management also came up for review at the meeting, a board spokesperson said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)