Braving minus six-degree temperature and chilly winds, the India Air Force on Wednesday came to the rescue and airlifted 150 stranded people, including women and children in snow-bound Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir.
With the announcement of IPL resumption imminent, Punjab find themselves well-placed with majority of their star Indian and foreign players already in the country and on standby.
A severe traffic congestion extending for kilometers was witnessed on the routes to the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj on Sunday with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav asking the government to make emergency arrangements for the stranded devotees.
The Singapore Airlines agreed to fly the stranded passengers to India, as there is no scheduled Air India flight for Thursday.
'I am helpless and there is no one to help me.' 'I have been on this platform since Saturday.'
With the civil unrest in Egypt showing no signs of abating, the Indian government has sent a special aircraft to fly back the hundreds of Indians stranded in the troubled country, where over a 100 protestors have been killed in the clashes with the police over the last one week.
Local Deputy Superintendent of Police Ramana Murthy maintained that since the lockdown was in force and the inter-state borders have been sealed, no vehicle or person could be allowed into the state.
Thousands of tourists have begun leaving Kashmir after a terror attack in Pahalgam killed 26 people, prompting authorities to arrange for their safe return. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah expressed concern over the exodus, while the Civil Aviation Ministry has ordered airlines to ensure there are no fare hikes and to offer extra flights from Srinagar. While many tourists are leaving, some are choosing to stay, citing the presence of security forces and their feeling of safety.
Here's a glimpse of how the massive rescue operation was carried out by the agencies.
A 22-year-old youth and a person with disability died, while at least 11 were injured, in separate rain-related incidents in the national capital on Wednesday evening. The incidents occurred amid sudden changes in weather in Delhi, as a rainy storm marked by hail wrecked havoc across the city, throwing traffic out of gear as far as Delhi-Noida, Delhi-Ghaziabad, and Delhi-Gurugram roads and uprooting several trees.
No date of resumption of services has been fixed so far, they said.
A technical problem with an Air India Dreamliner from Kolkata led to an overnight ordeal for around 130 passengers who reached New Delhi after a 13 hour delay.
The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway remained closed for traffic for the third day on Friday due to fresh landslides triggered by heavy rains, leaving over 500 Kashmir-bound passengers stranded.
Heavy winds swept the valley throughout the day and did not allow the operation of flights.
At least 26 trains were cancelled and 31 stopped at different stations due to violence in Assam, prompting Railway Minister Mukul Roy to seek enhanced security from Home Minister P Chidambaram for safety of over 30,000 passengers stranded midway.
Around 47 flights from New Delhi alone were cancelled, while 16 flights from Mumbai were not operated following the Air traffic control barring civil aircraft movements at the Srinagar, Jammu, Amritsar, Dehradun, Leh, Pathankot, and Shimla airports, among others, for about four hours since morning.
On Wednesday morning, the management sacked 5 more pilots, bringing the total number of those fired to 10.
However, this restriction would not be applicable for international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by the DGCA.
Northern Railway has taken several measures for the people stranded in flood-ravaged Jammu and Kashmir, like running special trains from Katra, Udhampur and Jammu to different parts of the country and attaching extra coaches to regular services.
The 270-km Jammu-Srinagar highway reopened on Sunday after a day-long closure due to heavy snowfall, allowing stranded vehicles to proceed to their destinations. However, several other important inter-district routes, including the Mughal Road, Sinthan Pass, Sonamarg-Kargil inter-UT road, and Bhaderwah-Chamba inter-state road, remained closed for vehicular traffic due to heavy snowfall.
More than 3,500 people, including women and children, had to spend the night in their vehicles on the highway in below freezing temperature, after authorities announced reopening of the road on Sunday.
Air India sources in Mumbai said the aircraft was grounded due to heavy ingestion in one of its engines after it was hit by a bird.
French authorities launched a judicial investigation into the conditions and purpose of the trip, with a unit specialising in organised crime investigating suspected human trafficking.
No let up in haze over Europe, expected for five more days
The Indian Air Force on Saturday ferried 1,100 stranded passengers between the twin capitals of Jammu and Kashmir in one of the biggest peace time operations, reports Mukhtar Ahmad
The ministry has asked the airlines to not to "take benefit of the situation" and charge higher fares for the tickets.
Cyclonic storm Fengal has commenced making landfall close to Puducherry and it may approximately take 4 hours for it to cross the coast completely, an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said. The process of the cyclone's landfall commenced at about 5.30 pm on November 30. The IMD said the forward sector of spiral bands associated with the cyclone has entered into the land and is likely to move west-southwestwards and cross north Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coasts between Karaikal and Mahabalipuram close to Puducherry as a cyclonic storm with a wind speed of 70-80 kmph gusting to 90 kmph during next 3 to 4 hours.
The shrinking ash plume from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano has raised the hopes of thousands of stranded passengers. However, even though the air lockdown over Europe may have eased, the chaos and confusion prevails.
'In my career, I have never witnessed such an incident'
The airport had temporarily suspended operations on Saturday due to strong winds and heavy rainfall caused by cyclones.
Indian airlines on Wednesday began evacuating stranded people from flood-ravaged Jammu and Kashmir with Air India flying back 270 passengers free, as DGCA asked them to cap total fares including taxes on Srinagar-Delhi and Leh-Delhi sectors at Rs 2,800 and Rs 3,000 respectively.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday requested his Bihar counterpart to provide free medical treatment to the injured passengers of New Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express that derailed at Chapra in Bihar.
Three members of the same family survived the horrific train accident in Odisha's Balasore and returned to their home in West Bengal.
A Delhi-bound Air India flight had to abort its take-off and was later cancelled after it hit a luggage tractor trolley while taxiing for departure at the Pune airport, airline sources said on Friday.
A senior railway official noted that waterlogging at the new location between Bhandup and Nahur led to the suspension of local services on the Main Line from 5:15 am.
Many of the passengers were bound for outstation areas like Itanagar, Dimapur and Aizwal, and were left with no option but to wait endlessly at airport premises.
The United Kingdom government on Tuesday said that though the air traffic control 'technical issue' that led to the severe disruption of hundreds of flights and left thousands of passengers stranded has been resolved, routes will continue to be affected for some days as airlines scramble to recover from the domino effect on their schedules.
Four southern districts in Tamil Nadu are experiencing severe flooding after record-breaking rainfall, prompting Chief Minister MK Stalin to schedule a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi for immediate relief measures.
The 23-coach 12506 North East Express had departed the Anand Vihar terminal in Delhi at 7:40 am on Wednesday for its nearly 33-hour journey to Kamakhya, about six kilometres away from Guwahati.
Normal life was thrown out of gear in Kashmir on Saturday as most areas of the valley received snowfall, disrupting flight and railway operations and also leading to the closure of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, officials said.
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