India continues operation Sagar Bandhu as Sri Lanka battles deadly floods

Colombo, Dec 18 (PTI) The Indian Army is supporting bridge restoration efforts to reconnect disrupted road networks across Sri Lanka and ease movement for communities affected by Cyclone Ditwah, officials said on Thursday.

The bridge restoration is being done in the northern district of Kilinochchi, the Indian High Commission said.

In the central district of Nuwara Eliya, one of the worst-hit districts, the mission distributed dry ration packets to 200 families.

The finance ministry said a 100 million LKR contribution was made on Thursday by the Indian industrial giant Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd.

Widespread flooding, landslides and severe infrastructure collapse across the island nation severely strained the country's disaster-response capacity in the wake of Cyclone Ditwah.

As of Wednesday, as many as 643 people had died, and 183 were still missing since November 16, as landslides, floods and rainfall caused widespread destruction, data from the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) in Colombo showed.

While 6,228 houses were fully damaged, 1,01,055 houses were damaged partially, the DMC said, adding that a total of 22,096 families and 66,132 people were still residing at 723 shelters. PTI CORR AMS