Helicopter carrying out rescue operations crashes in rain-hit Uttarkashi; all 3 onboard dead
A helicopter, carrying relief material in flood hit areas, crashed in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi today. All three people onboard the vehicle have died.
The vehicle was going from Mori to Moldi.
Three people who were on-board the helicopter include Captain Lal, Co-pilot Shailesh & a local person Rajpal.
Uttarakhand has been battered with rains since quite some time, following which Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Tuesday visited the rain-ravaged Mori block of Uttarkashi to take stock of relief and rescue operations. 51 villages were affected in heavy rains, causing losses of around Rs 130 crore.
Heavy rains in Mori block inflicted damage on an area spread over 70 square kilometres. Seventeen houses were destroyed and 115 others partially damaged, four bridges and power supply lines in a 14 km area were also broken.
Meanwhile, relief material continued to be distributed for the third consecutive day on Tuesday with helicopters taking food packets, blankets, medicines and clean drinking water to the affected people.
The SDRF is setting up food camps in the affected areas and alternative roads are being built in areas where roads are blocked by rubble of landslides, the Uttarkashi district magistrate said.
An alternative bridge is also being built in Chiva by SDRF personnel.
Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh also held a meeting to assess the damage caused by heavy rains in Uttarkashi and instructed PWD officials to take up connectivity restoration in affected areas on a priority basis.
He asked officials concerned to restore supply of drinking water in the affected areas expeditiously and ordered different departments to coordinate with each other so that relief reaches people smoothly.
