Uttarakhand rescue and relief operations – 26 June

• The Cabinet Secretary chaired a meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee this evening to review the relief and rescue measures in Uttarakhand.
• Bad weather hampered the rescue efforts particularly those of air evacuation. However, rescue measures of evacuating stranded people on tracks and through roads continued.
• The cremation procedure for bodies has started in Kedarnath by the State Government.
• The Army did a recci of the Jungle Chatti area however there were no survivors.
• The Border Road Organisation has made a bridge at Pandukeshwar which has enabled those stranded in Badrinath to cross over.
• Ration and edible oil supplies have reached Badrinath.

Indian Air Force:

• Despite bad weather the Indian Air Force conducted 64 sorties to evacuate 636 persons.
• 44 aircraft have been deployed in the region.
• The operations in the Shimla region were continuing till late evening.

Army:

• The Army today evacuated 2000 stranded persons from Badrinath through the bridge at Pandukeshwar and air evacuated 444 persons.
• It is estimated that there are 2750 persons are now remaining in Badrinath who need evacuation.
• From the Harsil area, 600 persons were evacuated and a balance of 540 continued still remain to be evacuated.
• A total of 8000 troops have been deployed in the area and a total of 28,300 persons have been evacuated by the Army till date.

ITBP:

• The ITBP evacuated 400 persons today by 3.00 p.m. So far 30,816 pilgrims have been evacuated by ITBP rescue teams.

BRO:

• The BRO was able to open the road up to 30 km beyond Uttar Kashi. The road from Srinagar to Rudra Prayag and Joshi Math has also been cleared.
• The road up to km 6 from Kedarnath to Augustya Muni has been operationalised.
• The bridge at Lambagarh near Joshimath was opened to enable people to cross over.
• The bridge at Son Prayag could not be operationalised as the rainfall resulted in sharp increase in the water flow of the river. • Another bridge is being set up at a location nearby and is likely to be operationalised by tomorrow morning.

Telecom:

• The BSNL tower at Augustya Muni is now operational.
• Only three towers of BSNL are down at present.
• The private telecom operators have also opened emergency numbers to provide the last active location of their subscribers in the region.


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