Air Force choppers pressed in flood-hit Assam; toll 10

Guwahati: Air Force helicopters have been pressed into service and Army, NDRF and SDRF personnel engaged in rescue and relief operations in flood-hit Assam where 10 people have died.

Seventy-eight relief camps were set up in the worst-hit Goalpara district where five people died and over 50,000 people have been affected due to heavy rains in the state and neighbouring Meghalaya, District Deputy Commissioner Pritam Saikia said.

A team of engineers has been sent to restore a damaged bridge at Krishnai on NH 37, he said.

With rains letting up, rescue and relief operation are on and Air Force choppers have been pressed into service to rescue marooned people in Dudhnoi, Krishnai and Bolbola.

Army, NDRF and SDRF have also been engaged for rescue work. However, majority of the people have come down on their own, Saikia said.

The flood situation in Kamrup (Rural) district turned grim with bodies of two women recovered from a paddy field in Boko area, police said.

Vast tracts of land have been inundated in Chaygaon, Nagarberra, Goroimari and Boko as water of rivers Kulsi, Jaljanli, Singra, Kolohi and Brahmaputra gushed in following heavy rains in neighbouring Meghalaya, Deputy Commissioner J Balaji said.

Road communications along National Highway 37, flooded in various places, have been disrupted and a concrete bridge between Nagarbera and Hekra was washed away, he said.

Medicines have been despatched to the flood-hit areas. Besides, water purifiers, hand pumps, mobile water treatment plants and pumping equipment have also been sent, a disaster management official said.