Monday, December 07, 2015

Chennai Rains: Defence Forces Call Off Aerial Sorties

CHENNAI: Defence forces have called off aerial sorties for rescue operations in flood-hit Chennai which is limping back to normalcy as water levels have started going down.        

"The water level in the city has gone down considerably after initial days of flooding. Since last evening all aerial rescue and relief operations have been called off. There are no further communications from either Tamil Nadu government or Centre to carry them out as the city is slowly returning to normalcy," a top IAF official told PTI today.      

In the past few days, through a coordinated team of defence forces and NDRF, the IAF airlifted nearly 1,500 people to safety.      

Nearly 400 persons including students were flown to Delhi and Hyderabad in a C-17 and a civilian airliner from the Arakkonam Naval base, 70 km west of here.          

The Tambaram Air base, nearly 30 km south of the city, and the Arakkonnam base were two critical defence assets in carrying out the rescue and relief operations.    

IAF units from different places had joined the rescue operations at Tambaram, which served as the nodal point for executing the operations, besides the INS Rajali base at Arakkonam.    

"Now, all the IAF units are returning to their parent bases, as the sorties have been called off," the top IAF official said.    
06/12/15 PTI/The New Indian Express
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