India’s loss in tsunami Rs 5,322 crore

The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Nation: "The three services, besides taking care of the east coast and Andaman and Nicobar, have also chipped in with rushing ships to Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia with relief supplies and personnel to rebuild the basic infrastructure including restoring power and potable water supply and providing medical help to the people, officials said here today. Elaborating on the operations condenamed Operation Sea Wave in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, officials said 16 ships, 10 helicopters and six giant IL-76 transport planes continued to airlift and ship relief material.

More than 600 tonnes of relief material have already arrived at Port Blair and Car Nicobar Islands and the services have now entered phase two. In Tamil Nadu, three Infantry and two Engineers columns are working round the clock, while in Kerala, five infantry columns are running nine relief camps, officials said. Operation Rainbow for Sri Lanka was on in full swing, with five ships, including one hospital ship and teams of army personnel with multi-disciplinary skills, rebuilding the devastated infrastructure.

Naval divers and engineers of the Indian Navy managed to clear the approach channel to Galle harbour, which saw extensive damage and the port is now operational. Similar operations were now on in the Trincomalee and Colombo ports and they were now partially operational, sources said, adding that more than 260 tonnes of relief materials had reached Sri Lanka.

The Navy had also rushed two ships to Indonesia, including one hospital ship, carrying more than 20 tonnes of medical supplies. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today chaired a meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) to review the ongoing relief operations in the tsunami-affected areas.

According to the latest status report released by the Home Ministry, the prelimniary estimates of the loss for Tamil Nadu are Rs 2730.70 crore, Andhra Pradesh Rs 720.73 crore, Kerala Rs 1358.62 crore and Pondicherry Rs 512 crore, a total of $1.18 billion. The details for Andaman and Nicobar were being still worked out, the report said.

The death toll continued to go up, with official figure standing at 9,682."