Nellore: As many as 25 multipurpose cyclone shelters are being built in the coastal areas of Nellore district for the benefit of people living within a radius of 5 km to the seacoast and most of them are almost ready.
The buildings will have rooms, halls, kitchens, dining halls, toilets separately for men and women. They are designed to accommodate 300 to 500 people.
Facility has been created in the ground floor to keep cattle and to park vehicles. There is also a huge water tank in the building that would take care of a week’s water needs of the 500-strong community, during flo-ds or cyclones.
The buildings have be-en designed in such a manner that they can be utilised as community marriage halls otherwise besides using them as shelters during calamities.
In view of the dilapidated condition of cyclone shelters built two decades back, authorities ha-ve decided to hand over the newly built multipurpose shelters to Self-Help Groups for maintenance after depositing Rs 5 lakh in the bank as revolving fund.
In addition to this a no-minal fee is being fixed as rent for those using the building for functions. This fund is taking care of the day-to-day maintenance expenditure of the building.
The construction of these buildings was taken up by the panchayat raj department at the instance of National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) under a World Bank-funded scheme spending Rs 1.75 crore to Rs 4.50 crore for each building depending on the size.
The Government of India has initiated the NCRMP with a view to address cyclone risks in the country. The overall objective of the project is to undertake suitable structural and non-structural measures to mitigate the effects of cyclones in the coastal states and UTs of India.
High vulnerability states in the country include Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal
