BANGKOK, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has implemented a comprehensive overhaul of its safety infrastructure, transitioning the capital from a reactive stance to a 24-hour proactive disaster management model.
The announcement was made ahead of the first anniversary of the strong earthquake on March 28 last year that struck neighboring Myanmar and triggered strong tremors across Thailand.
The BMA has significantly enhanced its urban search and rescue capabilities, integrating firefighters with emergency medical technicians to create hybrid units, Bangkok Deputy Governor Tavida Kamolvej said during a media tour.
The BMA is now placing seismic sensors in its high-rise hospitals, and the information collected will go into a central digital database that helps identify at-risk groups, like those who are bedridden or disabled, in all 50 districts to make evacuations more accurate, she said.
She added that the BMA Command Center, which now monitors over 40,000 CCTV cameras integrated with AI analytics, can synchronize real-time traffic data with emergency vehicle dispatching, reducing response times significantly. ■
