For a three-member team from JK Tyres, Friday is a day that it will never forget. Two members of the team were in serious discussions with executives from Honda R&D in Japan and the third was on the testing track, when the quake hit the country.
They felt a tremor and even as a translator warned them to quickly get under a table in the conference room, the tremor became a full-fledged earthquake. All those in the room dived under the table and crawled out unscathed after a while.
The team – Mr Vipin Kumar Basan, Deputy General Manager – Car Radials; Mr Hari Singh, Head – Product Evaluation and Manager – Motor Sports; and, Mr Pratik Srivastav, Deputy Manager – Product Development Centre – was in Japan, discussing with Honda about a new product that the company is developing for Honda. Mr Singh was on the test track when the quake hit.
The three were in Narita airport, waiting to catch a flight back to India when
Here is what a shaken Mr Basan had to say about his experience:
“We are doing a new development for Honda and we were in Japan for a joint testing and training of our drivers. We were at the Honda R&D Centre, at Utsunomiya City in Tochigi prefecture, about 160 km north of Tokyo. We were on the first floor of a two-storey building at Honda R&D. The whole place fell down on us. The ceiling collapsed. It fell on us. We got under the table and crawled out after I don't know how long.
“This is my first experience of a quake. The whole building was shaking as if it was put on some kind of a shaker. It started at about quarter to three. It first started with a few tremors and then suddenly it was un-describable. It still gives me the goose bumps thinking about it. It is still scary as we are continuously having tremors. Even as I speak to you, I can feel the tremors. The building is shaking.
“We are at the Narita airport waiting for our flight. Our flight is at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow. The flights are operating, at least most of them, normally. Every one in our team is safe.
“When the translator warned us, all of us got under the table. The first thing the translator asked us was if we could feel the tremor. By the time we realised it, it had become a full-fledged earthquake. Everything started to fall. The electricity went off. We were there (under the table) for a long time. Then we crawled out when somebody told us it was safe to come out.
“They have a wonderful system of emergency evacuation. There were earmarked areas in the premises where we had to assemble and almost all the employees had pre-defined roles. They had hand-held speakers through which they were giving clear instructions. Each employee was given a task and everything worked with clock work precision.
“The ceiling and the walls had completely collapsed. We could not go to some of the areas. There was quite a lot of damage. We came out of the building and after waiting for a while we walked out. There were no casualties. I didn't see anybody with even a scratch… Exemplary arrangement. Can't see it happening anywhere else but Japan.
“There was always a translator with us. We were moved to a safe place. We were taken by the chief engineer personally in his car to the house of a colleague where we spent the night. When everything was normal and the city calm, they moved us to our hotel. It was all very efficiently done.
“In the city, everybody was calm, there was no hysteria, nobody panicked. The only people who panicked were us. Everything was very systematic. The mobile phones were jammed for a while. But within a few hours the system was normal. Phone lines were working and Internet was accessible. We called up our families and told them we were safe.”
Mr Hari Singh : “What an experience. I was on the race track… it was a special track in a vehicle when it happened. I was driving quite fast, may be 200 kmph plus, and I first thought that the car had got a flat (tyre). Luckily nothing serious happened. We quickly got away.
“Even now at the airport, we can feel the tremors. We are at the departure lounge. We must have felt more than 150 tremors since yesterday. These people are probably used to this. Each one is going about doing his job. There is no chaos at the airport.”
In Delhi, Mr V. Sivaramakrishnan, General Manager, Product Development, JK Tyres, said the company management is making all efforts for the safe return of its staff in Japan.