Jammu and Kashmir floods: Air India evacuates 500 people from Srinagar, Leh

NEW DELHI: Intensifying evacuation efforts from flood-ravaged Jammu and Kashmir, Air India and other carriers today flew over 500 passengers, including about 200 engineering students, here from Srinagar and Leh and carried tonnes of relief materials to the state.

For the second day, Air India operated two special flights to Leh and Srinagar in addition to its normal scheduled operations.

GoAir too flew a flight from Leh to Delhi bringing 151 stranded students of National Institute of Technology (NIT) without any charge, while Air India brought back 122 passengers including 44 NIT students hailing from Andhra Pradesh.

Air India also operated another relief flight to Srinagar with a wide-body Airbus 330 aircraft in addition to its scheduled operations.

All airlines were also carrying several tonnes of relief material, including medicines, bottled water, food items and blankets, to Srinagar free of charge.

Apart from free travel for evacuees from the flood-hit state, the airlines were also not charging any cancellation fees from passengers who wanted to call off their travel to Srinagar till September 30 and waiving off excess baggage charges.

As DGCA asked the airlines to cap total fares including taxes on Srinagar-Delhi and Leh-Delhi sectors at Rs 2,800 and Rs 3,000 respectively, SpiceJet came out with special fares for travel out of Srinagar to various parts of the country including Jammu, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Bangalore and Ahmedabad.