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Emergency flights for 400 Lankan pilgrims stranded in India
View(s):Some 400 Sri Lankan pilgrims, stranded in Tamil Nadu and other parts of India due to the worst ever floods, are to be flown back to Colombo through an emergency programme launched by the government.
Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner Esala Weerakoon said yesterday more than 200 Lankan pilgrims, mainly elderly people, were being moved by road from Chennai to Trivandrum from where they would be flown back on specially chartered SriLankan flights.
He said Chennai airport had been flooded and closed for the past week or more.
The Sri Lankan pilgrims are being assisted by a Buddhist organisation that has provided medicine, food, shelter and other requirements.The High Commissioner said that in a separate ‘mercy’ operation, a Mihin Lanka aircraft would fly to Buddha Gaya in north India to evacuate some 120 Sri Lankan pilgrims stranded there.
A SriLankan Airlines spokesperson said more such mercy flights were also being planned.More than 25 SriLankan flights between Colombo and Chennai have been cancelled so far due to the unprecedented floods linked to climate change. Meanwhile President Maithripla Sirisena has sent a message of concern to those affected in the Chennai floods.
The President tweeted: “My heart goes out to our neighbours in Chennai as they make it through this difficult time”.