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KATHMANDU, May 6. /TASS/. Russian rescuers use a drone to specify routes of supplying humanitarian aid, the head of Russian Emergencies Minsitry’s rescue team Alexander Romanov told TASS on Wednesday.
"The focus of the humanitarian operation in Nepal is shifting toward restoring infrastructure, rendering medical assistance and delivering food and necessities to the population," Romanov said.
The On-Site Operations Coordination Center (OSOCC) discussed at Tuesday’s session the issues of using aviation for solving disaster relief problems. "Specialists noted, in particular, that using helicopters for delivering humanitarian aid is expensive and limited in volume," Romanov said.
The Nepalese authorities need to assess the condition of roads in order to establish routes for humanitarian aid delivery. "Russian Emergencies Ministry’s rescue team used an unmanned aerial vehicle [drone] to establish the best routes for delivering humanitarian aid by land transport," Romanov said.
The drone was used near the Sanga village, to the east of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, by a Tsentrospas group to assess the damage and the condition of roads. Twenty-three square kilometers of the territory and 25 houses were scanned. "This allowed to effectively observe the large area and establish the condition of the route for humanitarian aid delivery from Nepal’s capital to eastern regions that suffered from the earthquake and where people urgently need food," Romanov noted.
The devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake rocked Nepal on April 25. The death toll of the earthquake has reached 7,500 people, according to latest reports, while more than 14,000 others were injured. According to the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC), at least 6.6 million citizens have been affected by the disaster.
Seismologists have registered 67 aftershocks after the devastating earthquake. The magnitude of aftershocks varied from 3.2 to 6.9, most of them were felt on the territory of India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.