New Delhi, December 26
The Air Force and the Navy today pressed transport aircraft, helicopters and warships to undertake massive rescue and relief operations all along the country’s eastern coastline and isolated islands to search for dead and trapped persons after earthquake and sea tides hit the region.
After attending the meeting of the Crisis Management Group, Home Minister Shivraj Patil reportedly left for Andhra Pradesh today to personally monitor the rescue operations.
He will also undertake a tour of Tamil Nadu and Andaman and Nicobar Islands hit by tidal waves even as thousands of persons are still trapped in several villages between Car Nicobar and Greater Nicobar, where all communication links have broken down.
Official sources said the Home Minister is likely to spend the next two days in the disaster-hit regions. Meanwhile, an Inter-Services Monitoring Cell has been set up here under the command of Vice-Admiral Raman Puri, who is the Chief of the integrated staff.
Naval Coast Guard and IAF helicopters are scouring the stormy sea off the coast of the worst-affected areas in Tamil Nadu, including Nagapattanam, Cuddalore, Karakkal, Pondicherry and Chennai as well as waterlogged inland areas to search for trapped people and for the dead.
A naval spokesperson said three naval helicopters flying from Arkonam naval air station, about 60 km from Chennai, were engaged in rescue and relief operation in these areas after an SoS from state authorities.
An IAF spokesman said large fleet of choppers were operating from Hyderabad, Bangalore and Coimbatore on similar humanitarian missions.
He said the IAF and the Navy were co-ordinating efforts to rescue large number of people who were trapped on the Vivekananda rock near Kanyakumari.
Official admitted that there has been a total breakdown of communication links with Nicobar Islands and Campbell Bay, which were the nearest Indian islands to the epicentre of the earthquake that devastated much of the country’s coastal region.
The Nicobar Islands, which is 115 nautical miles from Sumatra in Indonesia, and Campbell Bay, which is just 25 nautical miles off the Indonesian coast, have suffered extensive damage, according to initial reports, according to a Defence Ministry official.
The Petroleum Ministry sources said the oil companies had also temporarily stopped the oil exploration operations in the
sea. They are trying to assess the damage.
The second unit of the Madras Atomic Power Station at Kalpakkam has also been shut down after water entered the plant.
