Subsequently, Nivar weakened into a cyclonic storm and further into a deep depression, centered about 50 km west-southwest of Tirupati at 1430 hrs, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said. According to IMD, it is to weaken into a depression during the next six hours.
"I'm not doing any favour. I'm giving back to my country."
The rescue operations, which were halted late Tuesday night, resumed on Wednesday morning and two more bodies were retrieved from the canal, which is part of the Bansagar dam project, Sidhi's Additional Superintendent of Police Anjulata Patle said.
'Coordination between our 50 teams, each with a strength of 45 men, played a key role in rescuing flood-affected people in Chennai. In all, we succeeded in rescuing over 20,000 people.'
Cyclone Vayu was to hit the Gujarat coast on Thursday, but it changed course on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.
The National Disaster Response Force, Navy and Coast Guard officials have so far been able to locate only a signboard of one of the missing ST buses .
As many as 48 persons were injured in these incidents and 25 still missing, while so far, 2,29,074 persons have been evacuated from the flood and rain-affected affected areas and moved to safer places, the government said in a statement in Mumbai.
Modi called for timely evacuation of those involved in off-shore activities.
The very severe cyclonic storm Tauktae is likely to intensify during the next 24 hours and reach the Gujarat coast on Monday evening, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Modi called for ensuring maintenance of all essential services such as power, telecommunications, health and drinking and their immediate restoration in the event of damages caused to them.
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.
Personnel of NDRF, Fire, Forest and police departments have expanded their search operations to the downstream of a river in their efforts to trace 19 more people who were still missing in the August 7 tragedy near Rajamala.
The death toll in rain-related incidents has gone up to eight in Telangana's Medak district with a factory worker allegedly getting drowned in flood water following heavy showers.
Indian Air Force's C-130 J Super Hercules aircraft on Saturday took off from the Hindon airbase in New Delhi carrying National Disaster Relief Force personnel and relief material to Nepal in the wake of the devastating earthquake that has hit the Himalayan country.
So far, 50 people have also been injured in these incidents, the government said in a statement.
One more person died in floods in Patna district, taking the toll due to inundation in Bihar to 10 even as major rivers on Tuesday showed receding trend.
No immediate relief appears in sight as the India Meteorological Department issued a red alert for six districts which have been already pounded by downpour, forecasting "extremely heavy" rainfall and recommending preventive actions.
The BJP hailed the order as a "resounding blow to the nefarious designs" of Rahul and the Cong described it as a "body blow to transparency".
The system moved north-northeastwards at 20 kmph in the last six hours and is over west-central Bay of Bengal, 90 km from Gopalpur, 120 km from Puri and 210 km from Paradip, the weather office said in its 11.30 am bulletin.
The Gujarat government had evacuated over 63,700 people from coastal areas of eight districts and 18 teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and six teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were deployed for rescue operations.
The maximum death toll has been reported from Idukki district, where 43 people have lost their lives so far, as per official estimates. 28 deaths were reported in Malappuram and 27 in Thrissur.
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said people living in the coastal belt would be shifted to safer places.
The minister, who made an aerial survey of badly affected areas in Idukki and Ernakulam districts, said the rains and floods had caused 'massive damage' to the farm sector and infrastructure like roads and power.
'If a major earthquake of the kind that hit Nepal hits us in Delhi, 35 per cent of our homes would be destroyed.'
The National Disaster Response Force has mounted the rescue operation along with the police and the fire department.
26 bodies have been recovered while nearly 14 are still missing following the bridge collapse on Mumbai-Goa Highway on August 2.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said he ordered to stop the water outflow from the Bansagar dam so that the water level in the canal can go down, which will aid in rescue operations.
Nine days after they got trapped in a partially collapsed under-construction tunnel near Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh, two workers were on Monday rescued.
Several people had taken shelter under the recently constructed structure while it rained. The dead, all of them men, were mostly relatives or neighbours of Jai Ram, who was being cremated at that time, officials said.
On Thursday, eight coronavirus patients died in a fire at a private hospital in Ahmedabad.
The cover provided under the Centre's Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, which is a vital safety net for them, ended almost a year back on May 31, 2020. Ever since, there hasn't been much progress on the higher insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh promised under the newly launched Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, reports Sanjeeb Mukherjee.
Around 150 NDRF personnel have been scanning the river on speed boats. But the strong current in the swollen river has made their task difficult.
Surplus rain water gushed out of reservoirs while several roads here resembled swollen rivers and four persons were killed in rain related incidents in Tamil Nadu and over 60 houses suffered damage, authorities here said on Monday.
The state government has declared a holiday on Wednesday and Thursday for all private institutions, offices, non-essential services within Outer Ring Road here in view of rains.
The search and rescue operations are still underway.
At least 12 labourers were in the under-construction building and all of them are feared trapped, Chief Fire Officer Arun Kumar Singh said.
As incessant rains lashed Mumbai and Maharashtra, life was thrown out of gear with delay in train and flight services causing great inconvenience to passengers.
The aircraft C-130J landed in new Delhi with 55 Indian evacuees at around 10.45 pm.
'Me and my boys had never ever thought in our wildest dreams that we would be taking part in a rescue mission of this kind.' 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.
The 15-member team, equipped with specialised diving equipment including a re-compression chamber and remotely operated vehicles capable of searching underwater, went straightway to the mine site in the remote Lumthari village in East Jaintia Hills district.
