Relief from Goa for flood-hit Chennai

Relief efforts in flood-hit Chennai got a small helping hand from Goa, with the state's only major port MPT and the state unit of the Indian Coast Guard sending packaged water, ready to eat meals, blankets and medicines for the stranded denizens.

The relief cargo was dispatched by two ICG vessels Samrat and Samudra Prahari which picked it up from the Mormugao Port Trust facility in Goa, while on its journey from Mumbai to Chennai, where they had been dispatched to join the relief and rescue operations.

"We are doing our bit to help the residents of flood-hit Chennai. We have collected the relief material in form of packaged water, ready to eat meal packets, blankets and medicines and have sent it with the Coast Guard ships which were passing by Goa coast," MPT chairman I. Jeyakumar told IANS on Saturday.

Over 300 people have died and several thousand have been rendered homeless after incessant rains flooded the southern city of Chennai over the last couple of weeks, even as state and central agencies as well as the Indian armed forces have been carrying out rescue work.