Kannur: On Saturday morning, Kerala’s Kannur airport welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is heading to landslide-ravaged Wayanad.
On July 30, a calamity struck, leaving 416 people dead and more than 150 missing.
The only elected BJP candidate from Kerala, Suresh Gopi, is accompanying him as the Union Minister of State for Tourism.
Arif Mohammed Khan, the governor of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, the chief minister, and other high-ranking officials from the federal and state governments met Modi at the airport.
Not long after, PM Modi and the others boarded a chopper that would land at Kalpetta and headed for Wayanad.
Modi will fly above the four Kalpetta villages devastated by landslides before landing there.
Modi will visit patients at the hospitals and a few relief camps in Wayanad, which are housing nearly 10,700 people affected by the landslides.
Following that, Khan, Vijayan, and other officials will attend a review meeting presided over by PM Modi.
The Prime Minister will return to the airport in Kannur next, at approximately 3:30 p.m., and fly to New Delhi.
PM Modi’s visit comes as his government took stock of the situation and immediately sprung into action by deploying more than 1,200 rescuers from NDRF, Army, Air Force, Navy, Fire Services, and Civil Defence, among others, for rescue and relief operations.
More than 100 ambulances, doctors, and other medical staff were deployed to provide medical support and treatment.
The Indian Army erected a 190-foot Bailey bridge in Wayanad, which has been crucial in facilitating the movement of heavy machinery and ambulances.
Remarkably, construction of this bridge was completed in just 71 hours, significantly enhancing the rescue operations by allowing heavy vehicles and machinery to be mobilised to rescue around 200 people stranded due to bridge damage.
In addition, the central government has constituted an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) to visit the affected areas of the state.
The team has been in Wayanad for two days and will complete their visit on Saturday.
–IANS
