Rescuers have evacuated more than 80 thousand people from flood affected areas of Jammu and Kashmir as flood waters have started receding in the Kashmir valley.
Centre has rushed three more NDRF teams to the state to bolster rescue and relief works in flood affected areas. Navy has also sent another unit of its elite marine commandos to Srinagar where they will be using their hitech boats to reach out people stranded in their houses.
Rescuers are also distributing water bottles and food packets on a large scale. NDRF Chief OP Sngh said, ready to eat food, medicines, drinking water and blankets are being provided to the needy people.
Army engineers have re-built two bridges in Poonch and Jammu districts in a record time of less than 24 hours. Dorungli bridge is the only link between Poonch and Rajouri, a 150-metre Baily bridge on Tawi river in Jammu ensures connectivity with 47 villages which were cut off by the floods.
Reaching out to flood affected people, Indian Railways has sent three lakh bottles of Rail Neer to the state.
Railways has also decided to send 50 thousand water bottles daily to Jammu and Kashmir. Railway Ministry Spokesperson Anil Saxena told AIR that Northern Railways has made special arrangements for people coming from Jammu and Kashmir.
An exclusive waiting room has been earmarked for their use at the New Delhi railway station. Train services to Katra, the base camp of Vaishno Devi cave shrine, has also been restored.
BSNL has set up two PCOs at the Srinagar airport where people can make free calls. Airtel has set up free calling stations at various relief camps across Jammu and Kashmir and free talk time worth 50 minutes have been credited to all Airtel mobile customers in the state. Idea cellular said, it is also auto-crediting 12 rupees in the accounts of customer with low balance in Srinagar region.
Prasar Bharti has sent a special team to the state to ensure uninterrupted broadcast of All India Radio and Doordarshan which was affected due to the flood.
About 200 students stranded in Leh will be airlifted to Delhi today. Jet airways and Go Air will mount additional flights to bring them back. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has asked the two airlines to fly the students free of cost.
