Road, rail and air transport services resumed partially in Kerala on Tuesday while the state starts to recover from the effects of unprecedented rainfall that led to flooding and widespread destruction in the region. At least 223 people have lost their lives in the rains, floods and landslides in the state since August 8 and more than 360 people since May 29.
The Kerala Road Transport Corporation restored most of its services on Monday except operations in Idukki district, where landslides have made roads inoperable. The state transport service from Kasaragod to Karnataka’s Madikeri in Kodagu has been suspended. “In Idukki, the services are up to Adimaly only, but in the rest of the state it has resumed almost fully,” Kerala Road Transport Corporation Divisional General Manager Venugopal told The News Minute.
On Monday, the Southern Railway announced that all flood-affected lines in Kerala have been restored, except the line from Punkunnam to Guruvayur and the Punalur-Sengottai ghat section. The railways also cancelled a few trains, partially cancelled a few services and rescheduled certain trains.
Commercial flights began operations at the Naval air station in Kochi on Monday, four days after the Cochin International airport was closed because of the floods. The National Crisis Management Committee ordered the stop gap measure until operations at the airport resume.
The Centre organised six trains to transport around 25,000 stranded migrant labourers to their home states in West Bengal, Odisha and Assam on Monday, The Indian Express reported. “They [the labourers] wanted to go home as they said their workplaces and living quarters were all flooded,” said SK Sinha, divisional railway manager of Trivandrum Division of Southern Railway.
Kochi Metro authorities announced they have resumed charging commuters for their services. “The other modes of transportation have been restored and the flow of flood-affected victims traveling in the system has come down,” it said in a statement. “Since our technical backbone at Muttom is yet to be revived, we are starting the automatic fare collection system with QR code tickets and are planning to rectify the card acceptance eventually.”
Relief materials from other parts of the country began arriving at the Cochin Port on Monday, PTI reported. Naval Ship INS Deepak arrived from Mumbai with about 800 tonnes of fresh water and almost 18 tonnes of provisions.
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