COLOMBO: India has committed $450 million in humanitarian assistance to help Sri Lanka recover from the devastating damage caused by Cyclone Ditwah, foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on a visit to the country. The cyclone killed more than 640 people when it swept across the South Asian island last month, causing floods and landslides that inflicted about $4 billion in damage.
Jaishankar, who is on a two-day visit, told a media briefing in Colombo he had handed a letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Dissanayake, committing to a "reconstruction package of $450 million". While $350 million will take the form of "concessional lines of credit", the remaining $100 million will be given as grants. Jaishankar also noted the 1,100 tonnes of relief material, along with medicine and other necessary equipment, sent to India's southern neighbour in the cyclone's immediate aftermath. "Given the scale of damage, restoring connectivity was clearly an immediate priority," he said, detailing the Indian military's assistance in providing portable bridges. — AFP
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