Designated as a category-II civil defence city by the government due to its strategic location near the International Border, Amritsar is witnessing renewed efforts to strengthen its civil defence mechanism post Operation Sindoor.
The military operation highlighted the urgent need to augment the city’s preparedness against emergencies and hostile situations. Officials said while Amritsar historically had an active civil defence setup headquartered at the historic Ram Bagh complex, the system gradually became inactive after the premises was handed over to the Archaeological Survey of India.
However, the border tensions witnessed during Operation Sindoor last year pushed the authorities to revive and modernise the mechanism.
As part of a renewed drive, the Civil Defence Department undertook a large-scale enrolment of volunteers. Civil Defence Instructor Hajrai Khanna said the department now has a sizeable pool of trained manpower.
“We have over 600 volunteers and are regularly conducting training programmes for them,” Khanna said. He added that awareness and preparedness programmes are also being organised regularly in schools, colleges and NCC units to prepare young volunteers for emergency situations such as blackouts, evacuations and rescue operations.
District Commandant Manpreet Singh Randhawa said the government has also proposed a major upgrade to the city’s warning infrastructure through a modern siren system. “At present, we have sirens in place at nearly 25 locations. The new siren system would be an upgrade, which would be operated from a single switch at a centralised location,” Randhawa said.
Officials said the proposed centralised system would enable quicker dissemination of alerts across the city during emergencies.
To improve coordination and monitoring, the entire city has been divided into five divisions under the civil defence framework. The authorities believe the division-based system would help in faster response and better management during crisis.
The department has also increased the frequency of mock drills. In April, a civil defence exercise was conducted in the Ranjit Avenue area to test preparedness and public response mechanisms.
Officials said another major mock drill involving multiple agencies is being planned for November as part of efforts to keep both volunteers and residents prepared for emergency situations.
