March 25, 2006	Saturday	Safar 24, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, March 24: Two US Chinook helicopters have left Pakistan as reconstruction material is now being delivered through ground transportation. At present, six US CH-47 Chinook helicopters are in Pakistan and will operate till March 31. At the beginning of relief efforts in October, up to 21 US helicopters were delivering supplies. As relief efforts progressed, the US matched the airlift capacity with humanitarian assistance requirements and reduced the number of helicopters to 12 through the winter months and rainy season. A statement issued here on Friday said, with the arrival of spring, the build-up of supplies at distribution centres, and opening of roads to the affected areas, US helicopters were no longer essential.

“We maintained 12 Chinook helicopters through March to ensure we had an over capacity to move supplies if roads became impassible due to rain and mud-slides,” said Lt-Col Aaron Aldrige, director operations for the US Military Disaster Assistance Centre.

“Now that we made it through March, we are going to redeploy th additional helicopters.”

US Military Disaster Assistance Centre Commander Rear Admiral Michael LeFever said: “We leave knowing that a steady stream of reconstruction supplies will continue to flow to the affected areas via the road network as the rebuilding and reconstruction efforts supported by USAID move into full swing and relief efforts end.” According to the Federal Relief Commission, a majority of roads that were closed due to the earthquake were now open. As a result, majority of the relief and reconstruction supplies were being shipped overland via ground transportation.