ZAGREB, January 31, 2019 – The City of Zagreb’s Office for Emergency Situations has completed the first stage of the project “Satellite Internet – A Back Up System for Emergency Situations”, which has helped connect 15 locations, notably emergency services and hospitals, which in the case of a breakdown of standard communication channels will be able to continue with their work with the help of satellite connections, Office head Pavle Kalinić said on Thursday, noting that so far 140,000 kuna had been spent on the project’s first stage.
“The project is about a satellite communication system which enables alternative communication and access to the Internet in the case of a failure of the so-called land infrastructure, which happens frequently in major accidents or natural disasters,” Kalinić told reporters.
During the first stage of the project, satellite Internet connections were established between all fire departments, the city hospitals of Dubrava, Rebro and Sveti Duh, the City Emergency Medicine Teaching Institute, the “Dr Andrija Štampar” Public Health Teaching Institute, the City Administration, the Zagreb Holding multi-utility conglomerate, the ZET public transportation company and the Office for Emergency Situations.
The second stage of the project, to be carried out this year, will include the instalment of equipment in at least 15 more locations, to connect central voluntary firefighting brigades, community health centres and the “Dr Fran Mihaljević” hospital for infectious diseases, Kalinić said.
Zagreb has launched the satellite Internet project because earthquake is the natural disaster that poses the biggest potential danger for the city. At the moment, the city has around 700 staff trained to intervene in the case of an earthquake, Kalinić said, noting that other towns lacked such staff.
The Civil Protection in Zagreb registered 14,714 interventions in 2018, with last year being an average year in terms of the number of interventions, Kalinić said.
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