SWAC's choppers rescued 300 from recent floods in Guj & Maha

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As many as 300 people, including children, who were stranded in the recent floods in Gujarat and Maharashtra, were rescued and shifted to safer places by the helicopters deployed by the South Western Air Command (SWAC), a senior official said on Thursday.

According to the SWAC official, a proactive approach in deploying helicopters and aircraft at various nodal points in the two states helped the Indian Air Force (IAF) in ensuring effective implementation of relief and rescue operations.

The SWAC is located at Lekawada village near Gandhinagar city. The entire south western area of the country, right from southern Rajasthan up to Goa, comes under the air defence umbrella of the SWAC.

"As many as 300 people, including women and children, who were stranded in the flood waters, were rescued and shifted to safer locations by the helicopters deployed by the SWAC during the end of July and early August, when heavy rains lashed several parts of Gujarat and Maharashtra," Air Commodore, C K Kumar, said.

"Showing a proactive approach, we had pre-positioned our helicopters and aircraft at various nodal points, namely Pune, Mumbai, Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Jamnagar. We did pre- planning about what we may have to do if the situation worsens.

"We were also monitoring weather. This helped us in reducing our reaction time to reach an affected area. This ensured effective implementation of our rescue and relief missions," Kumar said.

"SWAC helicopters conducted around 77 sorties and saved around 300 flood-affected people from these two states. Moreover, we air-dropped around 23,000 kgs of food packets and mobilised around 200 personnel of Army, Navy, NDRF and SDRF rescue teams using our aircraft and helicopters," Kumar said during a media briefing at the SWAC headquarters here.

Rescue missions were carried out in Navsari, Surat, Kutch, Vadodara and Jamnagar district of Gujarat, while in Maharashtra, people were rescued from inundated areas in Kolhapur and Sangli districts.

A press release said that the SWAC teams also helped the NDRF reach marooned Mahalaxmi Express in Maharashtra.

All 1,050 passengers stranded on the Mahalaxmi Express near Badlapur in Thane district had been rescued following flooding of railway tracks after heavy rains in the last week of July.