NEW DELHI: At least 36 people were killed and more than 100 injured in India on Saturday due to the massive earthquake that had its epicentre in Nepal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting on the situation and spoke with the chief ministers of the affected states.
Though Nepal was the worst affected with over 900 dead, India was not spared, as 25 people were killed in Bihar, 8 in Uttar Pradesh and 3 in West Bengal.
President Pranab Mukherjee wrote to the governors of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim, condoling the loss of lives.
Modi held a high-level meeting with senior ministers and officials and spoke with the chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim and Madhya Pradesh.
“The prime minister was briefed on the inputs regarding the extent of damage to life and property received so far from various places in India and Nepal,” said a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said he has directed all army units to carry out rescue operations and extend full cooperation to local authorities.
In order to deal with the situation in the affected states, five teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have already been sent — one to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and one each to Darbhanga, Supaul, Motihari and Gopalganj in Bihar.
Home Secretary L.C. Goyal said the impact of the earthquake was felt in many states in India, particularly in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim and West Bengal.
The ministry has been in constant touch with all the affected states to assess the situation. Each team of the NDRF consists of 45 personnel who are fully equipped with modern equipment to deal with search and rescue operations, he said.
The team also includes medical and paramedic personnel. The teams have equipment such as live detector machines, cutters which can cut steel, concrete and wood.
Goyal said the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) in the cabinet secretariat has already met and reviewed the situation through video-conferencing with the chief secretaries of the affected states.
The NCMC will be meeting regularly to take stock of the situation and the relief measures. The central government was in constant touch with the states and monitoring the situation very closely.
The states will be provided with all possible help from the central government, the statement added.
Giving details of the quake, L.S. Rathore, director general of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), said that after the earthquake, several aftershocks were felt in India too.
“These were aftershocks measuring five and above on the Richter scale,” he said, adding that the highest intensity aftershock measured 6.6.
Kathmandu airport shut, flights from India cancelled
Kathmandu: The Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu was indefinitely shut on Saturday after a massive earthquake rocked Nepal just before noon, resulting in the cancellation of all the eight subsequent return flights from India bound for the capital city.
The airport, according to aviation officials here, was opened in the evening, but only for non-commercial and relief operations. Some airlines like SpiceJet said they had been asked by Indian authorities to keep an aircraft ready to lift supplies from here and bring back stranded passengers.
Soon after the quake struck, an IndiGo flight for Nepal, which had left at 11:30 a.m. from New Delhi, had to be recalled and the departures of two others were suspended, official here said. The flight of Nepalese carrier Buddha Air, bound for Varanasi, was among the eight flights that were called off.
The earthquake struck at 11:41 a.m. India time.
Officials also said an Air Arabia flight from Sharjah to Kathmandu was diverted to the
Indian capital. An Indigo flight that had taken off from here minutes before the quake was also called back, while the departure of two flights of Jet Airways and Air India were stayed, they added.
There were eight return fights scheduled between India and Nepal on Saturday — five from New Delhi and one each from Mumbai, Kolkata and Varanasi. Four Indian carriers operating seven of these flights announced suspension of services to Kathmandu.
Sources at Indira Gandhi International Airport said modifications will be made in the schedules once a clear picture emerges. “We are assessing the situation,” an official said.
Budget carrier SpiceJet said it will not only offer full refund to passengers booked on their flights to Kathmandu, but also allow them an option for re-scheduling as and when operations resume to the Nepalese capital.
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