Article Text
Abstract
This study aims to propose a comprehensive logistics plan, including warehousing and transportation of relief goods after disasters such as earthquakes occur in the city of New Delhi. Delhi is one of the most vulnerable earthquake-prone regions and comes under Seismic Zone IV. According to the Delhi Disaster Management Plan 2016–17, Delhi is vulnerable to many disasters like earthquakes, fires, urban floods, etc. The magnitude of earthquakes in Delhi ranged generally from 5 to 6 in the past decade, thus it is considered among the high-risk areas. Hence, it is vital for New Delhi to have the modelling techniques and tools readily available to combat any unfortunate calamities.
The key outcome of this research is to develop methodologies that assist in estimating the demand for emergency supplies, planning the optimal locations for storing, and creating a fleet and routing plan for transporting them to the affected population. The typology of goods required during various disasters and seasons and their demand would be estimated from several data sources, including demography, population data, focus groups, and qualitative interviews with experts. The results will be presented for various network disruption scenarios using logistics simulation software. The choice of scenarios would be based on the historical data on disasters and their respective impacts on the transportation network. The results would complement the existing disaster management plan for Delhi, which mainly addresses poor response time and poor preparedness, especially for the people living in very high residential density areas, scattered slums, industrial units, etc. The study will help to improve the decision-making and response time in the field of humanitarian logistics.