The
flood situation continues to remain grim in Chennai and several parts of Tamil
Nadu, Southern state of India. The torrential rains have created havoc and
nearly everyone in the area and the surrounding coastal regions have been
affected in one way or the other. The gravity of calamity can be gauged from
the fact that personnel from all three defence services have been deployed into
relief and rescue operation.
Flights
to and out of Chennai have been cancelled and all the commercial operations at
the Chennai airport have been stopped till December 6. Over 50 trains have
either been cancelled or diverted due to flooding of rail tracks at several
places.
PM Modi visited
Tamil Nadu; met the chief minister Jayalalithaa and conducted aerial survey of
flood affected areas. She has apprised the Prime Minister about the situation.
PM Modi has announced Rs 1000 crore
assistance for Tamilnadu floods. He said, "Indian government stands by the
people of Tamil Nadu at the hours of this crisis."
The toll tax collection on all NHs in the
state has been freed seeing the situation in Tamilnadu till December 11, 2015.
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| PM's aerial survey of flood affected areas |
In Tamil
Nadu: 28 USAR teams with 944 personnel; 102 boats deployed, more than 5000
people rescued in Pondicherry: 02 USAR teams with 70 personnel, 08 boats deployed.
In addition to above, 4 NDRF Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams each from
NDRF base Patna (Bihar) and Pune(Maharashtra) are likely to be airlifted to
Rajauli, Naval Base Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu. The operation is still in progress. Home
Minister Rajnath Singh confirmed that 269 people had died in
the floods.
Air Force
and Army choppers have also been pressed into the relief and rescue mission.
Several people stranded in waterlogged areas have been rescued during regular
sorties conducted by the Air Force and Army helicopters. Food packets, ration
and other items of daily needs have been air dropped the worst-hit areas.
Three cargo transport aircraft C-130s of
the Indian Air Force (IAF) have been flown from the Hindon air base in
Ghaziabad to Tirupati along with the NDRF personnel and relief material.
The Navy
has deployed three flood relief teams so far and also launched a helpline:
044-25394240
Chennai was
declared a disaster zone on Wednesday. According to sources, as many as 35
lakes are flowing above the red mark, raising fears of more flooding.
While Prime
Minister Narendra Modi has ensured all help and cooperation
will be extended to the flood victims, Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar
Prasad on Wednesday announced that state-owned telecommunication company BSNL
will provide free service its customers in Chennai for one week starting today.
The
Bengaluru-Chennai road has now been opened. Several
students and migrants are stranded at the railway stations.
The weather
office in Chennai has predicted more rains in Tamil Nadu over the next 24 hours
due to presence of a low pressure in Bay of Bengal. Cuddalore, Coimbatore,
Nilgiris districts may witness very heavy rainfall. IAF chopper
dropped food packets for stranded locals.
The Central
Government has released Rs 940.92 crores for relief operations: Rajnath Singh
in Lok Sabha. Chennai
airport will remain shut till December 6. Nearly 700 passengers will be
airlifted from Chennai to Hyderabad by the Air Force on Thursday.
