'Imagine hanging from a thin steel cable under a helicopter with certain death staring at you below, being pulled up slowly in the din and downwash of the helicopter.' IAF Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe, a helicopter pilot himself, reports on how the air force rescued those trapped in the Deoghar cable cars disaster last fortnight.
Two days after one of India's worst train accidents at Bahanaga Bazar in Odisha's Balasore district, two railway tracks have been made fit to carry trains after bulldozers and cranes removed capsized coaches on the main trunk line connecting eastern and southern India.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that a signal was given to Coromandel Express to enter the main line but it was taken off and the train entered the loop line, where it crashed into a goods train parked there.
Using drones and remote-sensing equipment, rescue teams intensified efforts on Wednesday to reach the 25-35 men trapped in a sludge-choked tunnel since the Uttarakhand glacier disaster three days ago and more than 170 remained missing, hopes of finding them alive fading with every passing hour.
The IMD has issued an orange alert for Mumbai, warning of very heavy rains at isolated places with strong winds on Monday as the very severe cyclonic storm Tauktae is likely to pass close to the Mumbai coast towards Gujarat.
Police said around half-a-dozen dumper trucks and some machines were buried under the debris caused by the landslide which occurred around 9 am in Tosham block.
All 12 who had been buried under the rubble while repairing a drain adjoining it at the Jal Vayu Vihar in Sector 21 around 10 am were labourers.
The flood situation in Assam deteriorated on Thursday with one more person losing his life and nearly 7.18 lakh people in 27 districts remaining affected by the deluge, an official bulletin said.
Local train services came to a halt between Badlapur and Ambarnath section in Maharashtra's Thane district adjoining Mumbai due to water-logging on railway tracks after heavy rains, officials said.
According to officials, the Ganga was flowing at 463.20 metres following which water filled up in Sangam Ghat, Ramkund, Dhaneshwar Ghat and Fuladi Ghat. There was also a tremendous jump in the water level of the Ganga after 2,000-3,000 cusecs of water was released from the dam of the GVK hydroelectric project built on the Alaknanda river.
Eight bodies have been recovered from the debris of a stone quarry that collapsed in south Mizoram's Hnahthial district on Monday, an official said Tuesday.
27 mountaineers perished in an avalanche in the mountains of Uttarakhand last week. The mountaineers were returning from a trek to the Draupadi's Danda mountain peak when disaster struck at 8.45 am in the morning.
During the heavy rains through the week here and other regions of Tamil Nadu not only inflatable boats, but preparedness, determination and presence of mind came in handy for personnel including policemen and women, civic and forest workers who rescued people, animals and snakes.
The cyclone is expected to make landfall on Thursday evening as a 'very severe cyclonic storm' with maximum wind speed reaching up to 150 kilometres per hour, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
With the flood threat continuing to loom large over the valley, the Army has started the evacuation process in Srinagar as the city experienced fresh rainfall on Tuesday.
"Since some of them are in a critical condition, the death toll may go up," Jalpaiguri DM Moumita Godara Basu said, adding rescuers thoroughly searched each coach for survivors and bodies through darkness and thick fog.
"The death toll has gone up to 24. The search operations are still going on. However, rains have started. "Despite that, our officials, and the NDRF are engaged in search and rescue operations," Idukki District Collector H Dineshan said.
Railways Ministry spokesperson Anil Saxena said several people have been rushed to nearby hospitals with injuries, and the casualties may go up.
Seven days after a 11-storeyed under construction building collapsed in Chennai, rescuers called off their massive non-stop operations today as the death toll was put at 61 with no survivor or body being found during the day.
Three children were killed and several others went missing after three houses collapsed in a village following heavy rains in Dharchula sub-division of the district, an official said on Monday.
Landslides blocked roads, many villages went without electricity and the death toll climbed to 52 as authorities on Wednesday faced the aftermath of the rains that had battered Uttarakhand for over two days.
The National Disaster Response Force personnel were pressed into service soon after the incident and rescue and search operations were underway, police said.
With the flood situation in Assam remaining critical on Monday and affecting a population of nearly 43 lakh in 33 of its 35 districts, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma directed air dropping of food and other relief materials in areas where there is heavy inundation, officials said.
PM Narendra Modi took stock of the situation and directed all authorities concerned to be on alert for rescue and relief operations
Over 1,42,000 people have been rescued from the flood-ravaged parts of Jammu and Kashmir so far, as the relief operations launched by the Armed forces entered the 12th day on Saturday.
A thorough probe is underway, none of the authorities has so far talked about any possibility of a sabotage.
The accident occurred when the private boat 'Ma Kamala' was headed to Majuli from Nimati Ghat and the government-owned ferry 'Tripkai' was coming from the riverine island.
Parts of Raigad, Ratnagiri districts in the coastal Konkan region and Kolhapur district in western Maharashtra, have been worst affected by the floods. Besides that, heavy rains have been pounding parts of Satara district.
The system lay centered at 5.30 am over Southeast Bay of Bengal, about 450 km west-northwest of Car Nicobar (Nicobar Islands), 380 km west of Port Blair (Andaman Islands), 970 km southeast of Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and 1030 km south-southeast of Puri (Odisha).
Severe cyclonic storm Tauktae that is hovering over Saurashtra in Gujarat would move north-northeastwards and weaken gradually into a cyclonic storm during next three hours, informed the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
NHAI has already initiated process to handle such emergency situation and also taking all possible measures to avoid such incidents in future, an official statement said on Sunday.
An injured soldier told reporters from the hospital that when the building collapsed, there were 35 army personnel inside it, of whom 30 were Junior Commissioned Officers and five were soldiers.
Nepal Prime Minister Sushil Koirala on Tuesday said that the death toll in Saturday's devastating 7.9 earthquake could reach 10,000 even as he said that his government was carrying out rescue operations on a war-footing.
'It is very likely to move nearly northwards for next few hour and recurve slowly north-northeastwards along Narsapur, Yanam, Kakinada, Tuni and Visakhapatnam coasts during noon to evening on Wednesday and emerge into west central Bay of Bengal off North Andhra Pradesh coasts by night,' the India Meteorological Department said in its national bulletin.
Dramatic visuals showed fidgety people inside the cable cars that hung in air against the backdrop of a rocky hill cliff that overlooked a densely-forested valley.
'She is probably no more. The bodies were charred, you cannot look at them. How will you identify?'
The Army on Sunday deployed four columns and two medical teams in the rescue of people affected by a massive flood in the Dhauli Ganga river after a part of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off at Joshimath in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, officials said.
Naim Sheikh, who knew how to swim managed to save, with the help of his friends, about 50-60 people, even though, he himself was also injured in the incident.
The 18-year-old was the youngest of four labourers killed when the boundary wall of a housing society collapsed on them at Jal Vayu Vihar in Sector 21 in Noida.
According to the home ministry's National Emergency Response Centre, 138 people have died in Maharashtra, 125 in Kerala, 116 in West Bengal, 52 in Gujarat and 34 in Assam due to the floods and rains.
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