Sunday, June 26 2005 19:48 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Indian Air Force (IAF) choppers today (Jun 26, 2005) carried out a race operation to assess the flood situation in Himachal Pradesh following a request by the State Government, Squadron Leader, Mahesh Upasani, said. deploy

He said a Mi 17 helicopter had been placed into service with State Government officials on board to carry out the race operation while two squadrons of Russian made Mi 8 and Mi17 choppers (about 30 helicopters) are standing by at Sarsawa and Hindon bases to take off at a short notice, he said.

"Depending on the request of the State Government the chopper will take off at short notice," the spokesman added.

A high alert has been sounded along the 200 kms stretch of Spiti and Satluj rivers from Sumdoh to Sunni in Himachal Pradesh following an alarming rise in the level of Parechhu river and people living along the Satluj in low lying areas are being evacuated to safer places.

The level of Parechhu at Sumdoh in Kinnaur district has risen by 40 to 50 feet, 25 ft above the danger mark and water has already entered the army camp there, Himachal Chief Secretary S S Parmar said.

Parechhu, a tributary of Spiti, merges with Satluj at Khaab, close to Indo China border.