High Commission of India
Colombo

 PRESS RELEASE

Collaboration on Disaster Preparedness & Response

The External Affairs Minister of India in his capacity as the Special Envoy of Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi visited Sri Lanka in December 2025, during which he announced India’s assistance package of USD 450 million for reconstruction post cyclone Ditwah. Disaster Preparedness and Response is one of the key pillars of the package. Since then, there have been ongoing bilateral discussions between key stakeholders and experts to build capacity in the field of disaster preparedness, response and management. 

2. 2. As part of this initiative, a delegation led by Shri Vinay Thakur, ADG, Bhaskaracharya Institute of Space Applications & Geoinformatics (BISAG) visited Sri Lanka from 9 to 20th March 2026. In collaboration with Disaster Management Centre (DMC),  Ministry of Digital Economy and GovTech, they have developed a geospatial platform, built on the open source framework of PM Gati Shakti which will not only undertake disaster impact assessment but will also provide a platform for Whole-of-Government coordination on a common digital platform for planning, response and mitigation.

3. 3. A team from C-DoT, the premier telecom research and development institute of Department of Telecom, Government of India also visited Sri Lanka from 16 to 20 March 2026 and in collaboration with the Government of Sri Lanka has successfully demonstrated the Proof of Concept for a mobile broadcast based Early Warning System. 

4. 4. A delegation of senior technical experts from Geological Survey of India also visited Sri Lanka from 16-20 March 2026. They met Director General, Disaster Management Centre (DMC) and his team to discuss best practices and possibilities for collaboration in geotechnical sciences for landslide warning system, mitigation etc. The delegation also visited the National Building Research Institute (NBRI) and met Director General and his team to discuss best practices pertaining to landslide warning systems.

5. 5. In conclusion of the various meetings and engagements, the damage impact assessment platform and the mobile broadcast Early Warning System were demonstrated to H.E. Santosh Jha, High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, Hon. Eranga Weeraratne, Deputy Minister of Digital Economy, Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Chief Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka on Digital Economy, Mr Waruna Sri Dhanapala, Secretary, Ministry of Digital Economy and Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Sampath Kotuwegoda, Director General, Disaster Management Centre. 

6. 6. Both sides agreed to continue collaboration through further co- development of requisite systems, capacity building, exchange of best practices etc. with the aim of strengthening disaster preparedness, response and mitigation.

*****

Colombo
20 March 2026

Sinhala PR - Collaboration on Disaster Preparedness & Response