From tunnel rescue teams and medical personnel to Bailey bridges and tonnes of emergency supplies, India on Friday significantly stepped up its rescue and relief assistance to flood-ravaged Nepal, while awaiting Kathmandu’s response to its offer to deploy National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams with specialised equipment.A third Indian aircraft carrying 10 tonnes of humanitarian assistance departed for Kathmandu on Friday with an 11-member team of doctors, paramedics and a reconnaissance team for tunnel rescue operations, as India widened its support for the massive rescue effort.External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the latest consignment included portable generator sets, dignity kits, food packets and water-purification tablets.The Ministry of External Affairs said India had specifically offered to dispatch NDRF teams along with associated equipment to assist in search and rescue operations and provide relief to people affected by the disaster.“We await a response from the government of Nepal on this front,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, adding that India remained ready to provide any other assistance required by Kathmandu.At Nepal’s request, India is also preparing a tunnel rescue team, with the reconnaissance team being flown in to assess the situation on the ground and determine the equipment required.India has additionally offered Bailey bridges along with technical teams to restore connectivity in areas cut off by the floods. One Bailey bridge is already in Nepal and can be deployed for rescue, relief and connectivity operations, Jaiswal said.The third flight takes India’s humanitarian assistance to Nepal to around 60 tonnes in three days.The first aircraft departed on August 26 carrying 10 tonnes of relief material, including temporary shelters, blankets, hygiene kits, solar lamps and medicines. The second, which left on August 27, carried 37.5 tonnes of tents, blankets, hygiene kits, solar lamps, dewatering pumps, kitchen sets, generators, medicines and food items.India’s expanded assistance comes as it simultaneously races to trace its nationals caught in the disaster. The MEA has said 320 Indian nationals remain uncontactable or missing, while around 100 persons of Indian origin holding other nationalities also remain uncontactable.So far, 21 tourists from Tamil Nadu rescued from the affected areas have returned to Delhi, while 63 Indians working at the Trishuli-I hydropower project were rescued earlier.Jaiswal said the government was arranging the return of those rescued and maintaining round-the-clock coordination through its control rooms in New Delhi, Kathmandu and Beijing.Asked whether any Indian bodies had been recovered, Jaiswal said there was still no clarity on the death toll among Indian nationals and that those currently unaccounted for remained classified as missing.India has also sent medical assistance, with the 11-member team of doctors and paramedics now travelling to Nepal alongside the tunnel rescue reconnaissance team.On the possibility of direct financial assistance to Nepal, the MEA said India was currently extending support through humanitarian aid, technical assistance, medical personnel and rescue teams rather than announcing a separate financial package.There was also no immediate confirmation on sending a field hospital. Jaiswal said a medical team was being dispatched and that further details on additional assistance would be shared as they became available.India, he said, stood ready to extend “any other assistance” required by the Nepalese authorities as rescue and relief operations continued in the flood-hit Himalayan nation.