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As the alarm bells for more heavy rains get louder, the army and the Indian Air Force braved inclement weather to further step up the relief and rescue operations today especially in the tough terrains of the floods-battered Uttarakhand.
Met office here issued a warning of heavy rainfall at isolated places in the next 48 hours.
“A series of major breakthroughs were achieved by the Army and the Indian Air Force today, catalyzing thereby, the rescue and relief operations in some of the worst flash-flood affected areas of Uttarakhand,” an official statement said. The men in olive green are losing no time in constructing new bridges and landing at inaccessible areas of the Garhwal hills. A total of 83,000 people have been evacuated so far, chief secretary Subhash Kumar said. There are only 5000-7000 stranded people at different places, he said.
All the 500 people stranded in and around Gangotri have now been evacuated. Barring 25 people from Gangariya on the Hemkund axis have also been evacuated. Army troops, skilled in mountain rescue operations, have established contact with more than 1000 persons stranded in mountain folds in Jungle Chatti between Gauri Kund and Rambara on the Kedarnath axis.
Till reports last came in, Army helicopters have evacuated 350 people so far and search operations are continuing. Food and medicines have also been dropped. Two medical teams have now been established at Gauri Kund to treat patients. Besides, a composite relief staging area has been opened at Gauri Kund providing food, water and medicines to the people.
Early in the morning today, dedicated Army teams worked tirelessly to prepare a helipad at Jungle Chatti which facilitated evacuation from one of the most dangerous and inaccessible areas of Kedar valley. This helipad is now being improved to facilitate landing of Dhruv helicopters. Army also constructed two helipads at Gauri Kund.
Army in Badrinath valley enacted a heli-bridge at Govind Ghat to transport pilgrims across the Alaknanda River. Helicopters did shuttle service from either banks of the river as the temporary crossing made earlier had collapsed.
Army operationalised the foot track between Govind Ghat and Lambagar on Badrinath road. Another column conducting road clearing operations from Badrinath to Lambagar successfully launched a foot bridge over Alaknanda this evening, thus opening the foot route from Badrinath toGovindghat. Road Govindghat to Joshimath is open to vehicular traffic.
Army achieved another milestone on Gangotri axis. All stranded people in Gangotri have been evacuated. Road is now open for light vehicles from Gangotri to Harsil. Due to a series of landslides between Harsil and Uttarkashi, Army is now moving people using ‘Staging Area’ concept. Across all landslides, people are being made to cross on foot and in between any two landslides, vehicles are being used. Two staging areas at Sukhi and Gangnani have been established to provide food and medicines to evacuated people.
Army column reached Barkot on Yamunotri axis today. The column would start evacuating people from Yamunotri by tomorrow. As per the latest data, approximately 700 people are at Yamunotri.
More than 2300 people used Army communication facilities to talk to their loved ones at home. Army so far has evacuated 18,500 people and deployed 10,000 soldiers for rescue and relief operations.
In a very innovative, yet daring move, the IAF today established an aviation fuel supply bridge at Dharasu to give greater impetus to rescue operations which were severely restricted due to non availability of aviation fuel.
The first C 130J aircraft landed at Dharasu (a landing ground only 1300 meters long) in the early morning today for the first time despite inclement weather. On landing the aircraft defueled 8000 litres of fuel into an empty browser which was airlifted yesterday from Sarsawa by a Mi 26 helicopter. With the availability of additional fuel now at Dharasu, the extraction, evacuation and rescue operations have picked up pace and the available helicopters are now able to make more number of trips. Today since morning, till 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the IAF has flown about 149 sorties in which 26700 kgs of load and 1355 passengers were airlifted.
In all, the IAF has flown 768 sorties in which 103,350 kgs of load has been dropped/landed and 5,347 passengers airlifted.
