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.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed the Home Ministry to send senior officers from Delhi and other states to coordinate relief operations with local administration in flood hit Srinagar. After reviewing relief operations in flood affected Jammu and Kashmir at a high level meeting in New Delhi yesterday evening, he stressed on providing basic necessities like food and water to people severely affected by the calamity.He also emphasized on a big effort to ensure basic hygiene and sanitation in the water-logged areas of Srinagar town. The Prime Minister called for coordinating the relief efforts of voluntary organizations as well. During the meeting, he was briefed on the status of operations, especially in Srinagar town and the Kashmir valley. Mr. Modi was informed that the process of restoration of telecommunication links has begun and about 8000 landlines being activated in Srinagar.Mobile services have also been partially restored. He also said in view of the high magnitude of the calamity, the Centre needs to provide full support to the state administration, to comprehensively ramp-up the rescue and relief operations.
