Uttrakhand upgrades disaster management system to communicate with remote areas
Oct 09, 2020
Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], October 9 : Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Thursday inaugurated the State Disaster Response Force's (SDRF) latest Quick Deployment Antenna (QDA) technology, which aims at establishing communication in remote places during emergency situations in the low to no network areas.
As per the official release issued by the SDRF, the QDA technology is based on satellite communication that helps in sending and receiving voice or video calls and data transferring from the no signals areas. 
"There are two types of QDA systems, static and mobile. The static QDA will be established in SDRF headquarters in Jolly Grant, State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) Dehradun, or any other suitable location and mobile QDA will be sent to the respective disaster-affected areas with the help of a helicopter," it said.
The SRDF stated that it has procured six QDA devices, three each of both kinds.
Earlier, Sanjay Gunjyal, Inspector General (IG), SDRF, and SDRF commandant Tripti Bhatt had a successful trial run of the technology by establishing live video connections to remote areas like Gunji (Pithoragarh), Tuni (Dehradun), and Malari (Chamoli).
Uttarakhand administration had already distributed 248 satellite phones in the low connectivity areas around the state. Now it became the first state to use the QDA technology for disaster management, which was primarily used by paramilitary forces and the national disaster response force (NDRF) to date.
