With over 650 people losing their lives in Nepal in an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the open-ended Richter Scale on Saturday, the Indian Government has decided to send four aircrafts with NDRF teams to oversee rescue and relief operations and also set up a 24-hour control room for queries regarding the tragedy.
Briefing media here, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said "We are responding to the situation. As soon as the earthquake happened, our embassy got in touch with the Government of Nepal and we also, the Ministry of External affairs, were in touch with the embassy of Nepal."
"The Prime Minister spoke to both the President of Nepal and Prime Minister Koirala, who was travelling," he added.
Jaishankar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has indicated to President Ram Baran of Nepal and the Prime Minister of Nepal that India will do everything within its capabilities to be of help to the nation at this difficult moment.
"We have already started our rescue and relief efforts. As I speak to you, our first aircraft, which is a C-130 aircraft, it's on its way. Soon, it should be landing in Kathmandu Airport. The aircraft is carrying three tonnes of supplies; it is also carrying 40 members of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) with their equipment," said Jaishankar.
"Later on today, we would be having two more aircrafts C17s, they will be taking off from the Hindon Airport. One of those aircraft will be carrying a mobile hospital, the other aircraft will be carrying three more NDRF teams. A third aircraft will be taking off from Bhatinda that too will be carrying three NDRF teams. By the end of the day, we expect a total of four aircrafts to be landing in Kathmandu," he added.
The Foreign Secretary further said the first aircraft, which has gone in, will also be doing a reconnaissance of that area so that we are able to do a detailed damage assessment.
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"At this point of time, what we do know is there is very heavy damage in and around Kathmandu, but the details of that are not fully available with us....We also hope tomorrow morning to have specialized engineering teams with rescue equipment going in from Bhatinda," he added.
Talking about the severe damage in Kathmandu and beyond, Jaishankar said the Indian Embassy has suffered some serious damage.
"One house actually collapsed in the embassy. Unfortunately, the wife of one of our local staff members died, one person is seriously injured. We also know that there are a lot of Indians today in Kathmandu and outside Kathmandu who are obviously in a very difficult situation," said Jaishankar.
"We have set up a helpline in the ministry; the numbers have been put out. We would also request that if there are people who know that their relatives are in Nepal to send us their details. So, there is a e-mail address which is controlroom@mea.gov.in. if anybody who would like to keep us informed about their relatives and give us their contact numbers that would be very helpful for us," he added.