New Delhi: The States of Gujarat and Rajasthan had experienced heavy rains and floods in past few days. Considering the gravity of situation, the State Emergency Operation Cell requested Indian Air Force for rescue operations in flood affected areas of Mehasana, Deesa, Banaskantha and Patan.

Accordingly, the IAF team swung into action and deployed Mi-17V5 and Chetak helicopters at various location of the State for rescue and relief operations. A dedicated Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Cell was activated at South Western Air Command, Gandhinagar to monitor the relief operations round the clock.

Under the challenging weather conditions, with limited ground reference, these helicopters carried out rescue operations to save stranded people. The rescue operation included a patient in dire need of dialysis who was airlifted from the rooftop in the shortest possible time, along with a pregnant woman with small child and husband.

Despite inclement weather, a total of 220 sorties were flown by IAF rescue team in Gujarat Area and 35 sorties in Rajasthan area. During the rescue operations, the crew dropped a total of 86 tonnes of food packets in flood affected areas of Gujarat state. A radar was also operationalised at Deesa for communication which was specially transported by An-32 aircraft till Ahmedabad and thereafter moved by road to Deesa.

C-17 and C-130J aircraft airlifted NDRF personnel and load to the airports nearest to the flooded areas.

PIB