Chennai: Rescue operations gain momentum, PM announces ex-gratia for Tamil Nadu flood victims

Prime Minister Narendra Modi  announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs. 2 lakhs each, from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund, for the next of kin of those who lost their lives in the floods dues to heavy rains in Tamil Nadu.

"An ex-gratia relief of Rs. 50,000 has also been sanctioned from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for those who were seriously injured in the floods," read an official statement.

Flight operations will commence from Sunday.

"Day time all weather operations for domestic commercial flights from Chennai Airport will commence from tomorrow 6 AM i.e. on 6th December, 2015. DGCA will review the situation for night operations tomorrow," read another  statement issed by the government.

Four ferry flights that were parked at Chennai Airport departed for Delhi, Mumbai and Port Blair today while one Cargo flight Singcargo B747 departed for Singapore via Bangalore.

"In addition to this, four more flights have departed from Chennai upto 1700 hrs today," read a government statement.

"Chennai airport was made available for Day, VFR (Visual Flight Rules) operations for technical, ferry and relief flights by yesterday evening, and the Runways and the Taxiways were cleared of water. Restoration of Airport Systems, CNS equipment, IT systems, Met equipment is in progress to resume IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) operations for all flights," it said.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh had, on Thursday, said that there had been 269 deaths in Tamil Nadu since the heavy rain and flooding began last month. More than 10,000 people have been rescued so far by the Army and the National Disaster Response Force.

Schools, colleges and offices in Chennai have been forced to close and exams have been postponed. Telecom companies have offered free talk-time to their customers. Mobile phone services have been partially restored.