ALLAHABAD, June 29, 2013: The Central Command under the operation Surya Hope achieved major success on Friday. Spearheaded by Army Commander Lt Gen Anil Chait army opened the all important road link fromSonprayag to GauriKund, the base camp for trek to Kedarnath.

Defence PRO BB Pandey said that approximately 1,000 people stranded at Gauri Kund were being evacuated along the newly opened road to Sonprayag and Tehri. Army para-troopers equipped with specialized mountaineering equipment have reached out to people stuck in various gorges, ravines and nallas between Gauri Kund and Ram Bara on Friday morning. Around 70 men are conducting search operations in Ram Bara which was washed away by floods. In a daring act, army's aviation pilots landed a special force at Jungle Chatti near Ram Bara and rescued 16 people from river bed.

In the Joshimath sector, army constructed a temporary bridge across Alaknanda near Govind Ghat to help stranded Hemkund Sahib pilgrims. Similarly, two landslides between Govind Ghat and Gagariya have been cleared paving the way for pilgrims to move by foot. Around 500 people have been evacuated so far. Army teams reached Badrinath and Ghagriya on Friday and evacuated 91 people were evacuated today by Army helicopters. 322 people were air lifted from Gagaria.

In Pithoragarh, eight stranded civilians were evacuated by army helicopter from Milam on Friday. A medical camp was established at Tijam for people affected by floods. Around 65 patients were treated by army medical team at Gothi in the district and 160 were evacuated from inundated areas and moved to upper reaches.

On Thursday night, army teams reached Gangotri for the first time since the floods. Approximately 500 people in Gangotri are now being evacuated to Harsil. Army camp at Harsil provided shelter, food and medical aid to 1,500 people. Some of them have since been evacuated by helicopters from Harsil. Army on Friday air lifted 3.6 tonnes of food to Harsil. Army has also opened the Rishikesh - Gangotri road up to Uttarkashi. The road between Uttarkashi and Harsil is still not open to traffic due to landslides at number of places. This 74-km-long stretch will be the focus of army's attention in the phase 2 of Surya Hope commencing on Saturday.

Army team has been landed 12 KMs inside Pindari glacier in Bageshwar district of Kumaon region of Uttarakhand by helicopter to link up and evacuate 50 people stranded on the glacier.

Four flood relief columns of Army are assisting civil administration in evacuating people from flood affected areas of Pilibhit, Laksar, Mawana and parts of East Delhi. 1354 people have so far been evacuated from Pilibhit alone.

Army, as of date, has deployed approximately 10,000 of its personnel to carryout rescue, relief search and humanitarian assistance operations in Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Bageshwar and Pithoragarh districts of Uttarakhand and seven districts of UP comprising Saharanpur, Bijnor, Haridwar, Pilibhit, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Amroha. Army operations are continuing in full swing.

Source: The Times of India, DT. June 29, 2013.