Vizag flight services to resume tomorrow

Visakhapatnam: Flight services from Visakhapatnam airport are scheduled to resume tomorrow, five days after Cyclone Hudhud hit the Andhra Pradesh coast.

Civil Aviation Minister, P Ashok Gajapathi Raju said on Thursday that efforts are on to restore the immigration facility at the airport and international flight operations will resume by November 1.

According to media reports, an Air India flight is scheduled to land late in the afternoon from New Delhi and take off an hour later for Hyderabad.

The airport was completely damaged in the cyclone. Roof of the airport suffered extensive damage. No night flights will be taking off as lights on the runway are damaged.

Power supply has been partially restored in Visakhapatnam district and mobile communication services have also significantly improved, bringing some relief to the people facing harrowing times after Sunday's devastating Cyclone Hudhud.

A senior official of Eastern Power Distribution Company of Andhra Pradesh Limited said two lakh power connections were likely to be restored on Thursday.

"Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam districts are ready to be provided with power supply. We are waiting for the transmission towers to be set right. ERS (emergency restore system) has been brought in from Chhattisgarh. By evening, power can be resumed to most parts of these two districts," the official said.

Power has been restored in 10 per cent of urban areas of Visakhapatnam district, Collector N Yuvaraj said on Thursday.

A senior official of Indus Towers, a three-way joint venture between Airtel, Idea and Vodafone, said power supply has been provided to all strategic and important towers in East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam.

Indus provides infrastructure facilities like towers and power supply to the three telecom service providers.

"East Godavari has been restored fully. In Srikakulam and Vizianagaram, power supply to the towers has been restored up to 80 per cent. In Visakhapatnam, power supply has been restored to 70 per cent of total 330 towers," the Indus official said.

The towers are now running with diesel generator supplied power, he said.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who has been camping in Visakhapatnam and other cyclone-hit districts to oversee relief operations, has said that essential commodities will be given free at all fair price shops in these districts.

The government is transporting vegetables from other districts in the state to Visakhapatnam to ensure that there is no shortage of supply.

Water was being supplied to the residents of Visakhapatnam by tankers and efforts were on to resume supply by pipelines, officials said.

Rail and bus services have already been restored to Visakhapatnam. The state disaster management department said in a statement that 37 people were reported killed in different rain-related incidents till yesterday evening.

Naidu had earlier put the rough estimate of losses at about Rs 70,000 crore due to the cyclone.