Almost a decade ago, in July 2005 when deluge inundated major parts of Mumbai, the civic administration had decided to build an institution in Parel to train civic officials and citizens to deal with similar exigencies. The supposed institution was to be inaugurated three years ago in 2011, but ironically it is far from ready.

Every successive year, the Brihanmumbai Municipal corporation (BMC) tackles with infernos, structure caves in, tree uprooted and water logging inundates roads and railway tracks during the monsoon.

Yet, the insensitivity of our civic body to these natural and man-made calamities has led to this delay. Three years after its promised deadline, the City Institute of Disaster Management (CIDM) is still awaiting inauguration.

The construction of the proposed institution began in 2009 inside Parel’s Kalpataru complex, after taking over land from the developer. The BMC has invested Rs 3 crore on the building and the various state of the art facilities that are housed inside. The four-storey building with glass facade exterior is almost complete at present; work on the fourth-floor auditorium is in advanced stage.

“Because of price increase, the plan got delayed. All furniture work is already completed and in the next two months, we will start operating from this building,” claimed an official from BMC’s disaster management cell.

The institute suffered losses when mischief makers slipped into the institution, last year, through the emergency exit and ruined washbasins on every floor which are yet to be replaced. Parts of the building’s glass exterior have also been smashed. The civic body appointed a caretaker to keep watch over its property after these incidents.

The civic body moots a one-year course in disaster management in partnership with the University of Mumbai. There are also plans to get experts in disaster management to share knowledge with officials to prepare the city to deal with such events. However, all this can only happen when the institute actually opens.