Air India today announced it will operate two additional flights to Srinagar tomorrow and provide free passage to tourists stranded in flood-hit Jammu and Kashmir as several chopper firms joined the multi-agency rescue and relief operations there.
While state-run Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited and private companies like Global Vectra and Himalayan Heli are working alongside the defence forces, private carriers like Jet Airways and IndiGo said they had started flying relief materials to Srinagar on their regular flights.
Air India's offer for free passage back home to stranded tourists was announced after a meeting, chaired by Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth and attended by top officials of various ministries including Civil Aviation Secretary V Somasundaran, to discuss the devastation in the state, officials said.
"Air India has kept two aircraft ready to join the humanitarian efforts in Jammu and Kashmir, while Pawan Hans and private companies like Global Vectra and Himalayan Heli are working alongside the defence forces," Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju said earlier.
The two widebody, twin-aisled Airbus A-330s, with a capacity of 220 seats, are likely to fly to Srinagar from here medicines, doctors and other relief materials tomorrow, airline sources later said.
These two aircraft would operate in addition to the two other scheduled daily flights to Srinagar.
Air India CMD Rohit Nandan said the two special planes have been kept on stand-by and "we are ready to carry passengers or relief materials provided by the government or any NGO free of charge".
