Bengal seeks Army's support to restore infrastructure hit by cyclone Amphan

Kolkata, May 23: West Bengal government has sought Indian Army's support to restore essential infrastructure and services in cyclone-ravaged areas.

The government urges railways, port, private entities to provide support for restoration of essential services in cyclone-hit areas.

In a series of three tweets this evening, the state's Home Department called for mobilization of "maximum strength in unified command mode on 24x7 basis" to help get essential services like drinking water, sanitation and power supply back on track.

Responding to the state government request, the centre said that ten fresh teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are being rushed to West Bengal in order to speed up the relief and rescue operations post cyclone 'Amphan'.

"Ten additional teams have been mobilised and are being rushed at the earliest from NDRF locations outside West Bengal. Teams are likely to reach Kolkata by late night Saturday," an NDRF spokesperson told PTI.

A total of 26 NDRF teams are deployed in six cyclone affected districts of West Bengal for restoration work at present and with the addition of the fresh ones the total number of teams will be 36.

The death toll due to the cyclone in West Bengal has risen to 85, as angry Kolkatans resorted to protest and road blockades in various parts of the city over the administration's failure to restore normalcy even after three days.

Lakhs of people were rendered homeless as cyclone Amphan wreaked havoc in half-a-dozen districts of the state on Wednesday, flattening houses, uprooting thousands of trees and swamping low-lying areas.

Around 1.5 crore people of the state have been directly affected and more than 10 lakh houses destroyed due to the cyclone.