Pune:
The whole country exhaled when Cyclone Phyan passed India by. Now, there is new reason for relief. As it turns out, the emergency National Disaster Relief Force can take hours to reach the location of a crisis. It doesn't have any dedicated planes.
So when the Force headed from Pune to Mumbai on the 11th, in the crucial hours before the Cyclone was to arrive, its mode of transport was a bus. That mean it would have reached Mumbai hours after the cyclone.
This is India's only force trained for emergency relief in calamities. It has 8 batallions across India, each is in charge of three to four states. The Pune batallion is deployed in Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka, states that are spread over several hundred kilometres. Yet, the NRDF's demand for dedicated air transport is still pending with the government.
So while the jawans of the NRDF have the training and gear they need, they have no way of helping a disaster-zone when it's most vulnerable. At best, the Force can promise it'll get there. Eventually.