Iqbal Singh Chahal, is an IAS Officer (1989) of the Maharashtra Cadre. An Engineer by qualification, Mr Chahal has the soul of a soldier and mind of an achiever.
Mr Chahal was appointed Commissioner of BMC, Mumbai, in May 2020, at the peak of the COVID -19 pandemic. The scale of the pandemic was of a World War. The soldier in Mr Chahal promptly articulated his mission: Proactively Chase the Virus. Mr Chahal walks his talk. A born leader.
In order to successfully pursue his mission, Mr Chahal first identified the Tiger Hills standing between BMC and Victory over the Virus. The key challenges were: Inadequate inventory of key resources; lack of appropriate healthcare infrastructure; centralization of decision making; inefficient time management.
The engineer in Mr Chahal rolled up his sleeves. He searched for innovative solutions. With that was born, at speed, the Mumbai Model.
The Mumbai Model is a management system for Proactively Chasing the Virus. It works on auto-pilot.
This Mumbai Model has delivered Victory. It has enabled the flattening of the COVID-19 curve twice, thereby saving hundreds of lives.
The benchmark features of the Mumbai Model are:
- Instead of a Central War Room, establishing 24 War Rooms across 24 wards in Mumbai. The objective: Optimum allocation of hospital beds in public and private hospitals.
- Tenting six Jumbo Covid Centers across Mumbai, with a capacity of 9,200 beds. These are makeshift hospitals, with ICU beds and round the clock medical and support staff.
A unique achievement of the Mumbai Model has been the control of COVID-19, in the largest slum in the world, Dharavi. Mr Chahal has saved a mega humanitarian crisis. His mantra: Test, Trace, Track and Treat.
Mr Chahal is a COVID HERO. Unafraid to think boldly out-of-the-box. Respected globally.
We are honored to present Mr Iqbal Singh Chahal the Qimpro Medal 2021 for Extraordinary Achievements.