Pradhan also asserted that the fumes that were seen coming out was a 'technical' issue and there was no need to panic.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has directed its rescue teams to ensure that the country's major medical oxygen generation plants based in Odisha and West Bengal are 'running and alive' during Cyclone Yaas that is developing in the Bay of Bengal, a senior officer said.
The DG said the maximum of four teams of the NDRF have been positioned in Kutch district and the Gujarat government has done an in-depth evacuation exercise as part of which fishing boats have been anchored, big ships have been sent to the high seas so that they are not affected by the tidal waves, more than 4,000 hoarding have been taken down so that they don't become deadly flying objects as strong winds blow.
Rescue operations to evacuate 41 workers trapped in the tunnel resumed on Thursday morning after an iron mesh that had come in the path of the auger machine drilling an escape path was removed.
Authorities continue evacuating stranded pilgrims from areas around Dharali village in Uttarkashi, focusing on air rescue and relief operations due to damaged roads. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami is overseeing the efforts, with central government support.
Nine National Disaster Response Force teams were deployed for rescue operations following one of the worst railway disasters in India that killed at least 278 people and injured more than 900. According to official data, the force rescued 44 victims and retrieved 121 bodies from the spot.
NDRF director general Atul Karwal told PTI that the teams are undertaking continuous familiarisation exercises and conducting simulation drills in the temple town to respond to any contingency.
While two lives were "tragically" lost before the landfall of the cyclone, not a single human life was lost post the landfall in Gujarat.
India's National Disaster Response Force on Monday began withdrawal of its men from quake-hit Nepal after the country asked foreign rescue teams to end their work.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is expected to release its preliminary report this week on the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, which resulted in the deaths of at least 260 people. The investigation is ongoing, with the help of foreign experts, and the black box and voice recorder data are being analyzed.
A fresh team of 51 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel is being rushed to earthquake-hit Turkiye even as two teams present there have launched rescue operations at multiple collapsed structures, Director General of the force Atul Karwal said Wednesday.
The federal contingency force has taken out 44 victims alive and 71 bodies from the mangled railway coaches in Balasore district since its first team reached the accident site around 8:30 pm on Friday.
A dozen teams of the NDRF will be deployed to ensure the safety of the people who embark on the yatra from July 1, they added.
Forty-one Border Road Organisation labourers working to clear snow near the high altitude border village of Mana in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district were trapped under an avalanche on Friday.
According to IMD, the cyclonic storm weakened into a 'deep depression' at 11:30 pm on Friday over Southeast Pakistan.
As Odisha and West Bengal are bracing for a severe cyclonic storm, governments of both states started evacuating people and while deciding to close educational institutions in vulnerable areas.
The teams will be in addition to the 56 such contingents which are undertaking flood combat operations in these two states, besides Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
There was a rush of people on the bridge, which was reopened for the public just four days ago following the renovation work, when it snapped around 6.30 pm, officials said.
'There's also a possibility of the cyclonic system changing its course, thus avoiding a landfall in Odisha'
As Cyclone Dana barrels toward the coasts of Odisha, threatening to impact nearly half of the state's population, the government is racing against time to execute a massive evacuation plan aimed at relocating about 10 lakh people in several coastal districts to safety. In West Bengal, the cyclone is set to bring heavy rainfall in several southern West Bengal districts, including Kolkata, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said.
The national calamity response force, NDRF feels it is time that citizens are "trained" in combating both man-made and natural catastrophes.
The National Disaster Response Force on Friday intensified its relief and rescue operations in the rain and flood-battered Chennai and its adjoining areas as it added 20 more teams for the job and rescued over 10,000 people till now.
"This is our most massive deployment in any flood disaster till date. Now we have close to 1,600 personnel with 21 officers and 200 rubberised inflatable boats. We have rescued over 16,000 people to safer locations till now," the DG said.
Salvage operations in the earthquake-hit Himalayan country is becoming a 'time consuming' affair
Two civic officials have been suspended in connection with the collapse and an offence has been registered against the building owner, an official said.
Cyclone Biparjoy made landfall near Jakhau Port in Gujarat on Thursday evening with a wind speed of 115-125 kmph gusting to 140 kmph as heavy rains lashed the coastal region, where several areas plunged into darkness due to power cuts and a large number of trees, electric poles and hoardings got uprooted.
Cyclone Biparjoy has left a trail of destruction in Gujarat's Kutch and Saurashtra regions as some 1,000 villages are still without power with hundreds of electric poles getting damaged, while several coastal villages were flooded due to heavy rains and incoming seawater, officials said on Friday, a day after the storm made landfall.
A portion of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on Sunday, triggering an avalanche and a deluge in the Alaknanda river system that washed away hydroelectric stations, leaving at least seven people dead and 125 missing who are feared dead.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reviewed the preparedness to deal with the situation arising out of the likely formation of Cyclone Jawad that is expected to hit the North Andhra Pradesh-Odisha coast and directed officials to take every possible measure to ensure that people are safely evacuated.
After undertaking rescue operation in the flood-ravaged Jammu and Kashmir, the National Disaster Response Force is now focusing on relief operations and had deployed 'boat hospitals' in water logged areas to provide health care facilities to the stranded people.
National Disaster Response Force teams rescued more than 50 passengers including 16 badly trapped from the mangled bogies of Patna-Indore Express which derailed in Kanpur during the wee hours on Sunday.
The accident occurred around 5.45 pm near Khatauli town, 40 km off Muzaffarnagar, leaving 23 people dead, the Uttar Pradesh police said.
A 13.2 MW small hydro project on the Rishiganga river was swept away in the glacier burst in Uttarakhand on Sunday, but there is no danger of floods in the downstream areas as the water level has been contained.
Ten teams of the NDRF have begun full-fledged relief and rescue operations on the third day of the disaster in quake-hit Nepal.
Nine days after they got trapped in a partially collapsed under-construction tunnel near Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh, two workers were on Monday rescued.
Modi called for timely evacuation of those involved in off-shore activities.
The incident took place in Kanpur Development Authority colony in the afternoon, when top floors of the seven-storey under-construction building started falling, Modak said.
An unspecified number of people were evacuated from coastal areas of Odisha where Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore were likely to experience heavy rainfall accompanied by high-velocity winds, particularly on May 19 and 20, IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said.
Railways Ministry spokesperson Anil Saxena said several people have been rushed to nearby hospitals with injuries, and the casualties may go up.
Rains will continue to batter Tamil Nadu for the next seven days and the next 48 hours are "very crucial", the IMD has said.
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