Rain god is in no mood to grant relief in Gujarat as on Thursday people of Ahmedabad experienced heavy downpour resulting in waterlogging in most parts of the biggest city of Gujarat and paralysing routine life.
Intensity of rain decreased in the worst affected Banaskantha district. In the past 24 hours till Thursday afternoon heavy rain was reported at isolated locations, including Central and North Gujarat. Saurashtra region too received scattered rains. Meteorology department has predicted heavy rain in the state in next 24 hours.
Ahmedabad received more than nine inches of rain in the span of just 15 hours since Wednesday late night. Due to incessant rain whole night, many parts of the city flooded and water logging in some area was waist high. Underpasses literally transformed into swimming pools and the local authority was forced to stop vehicular movement till late in the evening.
The convocation ceremony of Gujarat University was to be held on Thursday was cancelled due to heavy rain. The authority had also cancelled entrance tests of medical, paramedical and dental courses. All the schools and colleges in the city remained closed.
Rain waters flooded residential areas in city of Ahmedabad, where NDRF conducted rescue work and shifted people stranded in submerged societies to safer places. As many as 21 trains were cancelled and 14 were short-terminated at Ahmedabad Division of Western Railways. Gujarat State Road Corporation (GSRTC) cancelled 1200 routes across the state due to water logging, caves-in in roads and other reasons related to heavy rain.
Ahmedabad received 170 mm rainfall, Dahegam received 136 mm, Kalol 129 mm and Gandhinagar 120 mm. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani visited the affected areas of Ahmedabad and conducted an inspection of the rescue work early on Thursday. The State administration has also demanded additional forces from Centre to reach-out to the flood-affected areas especially in the North Gujarat districts of Banaskantha, Patan and Mehsana.
Meanwhile Deputy CM Nitin Patel said that eight more teams NDRF will join the rescue work in the affected districts apart from the existing 10 teams, 6 columns of Army, 11 teams of SDRF and 6 teams of BSF jawan working on war footing to speed up rescue and relief operations. Those stranded in far-flung villages, which are marooned in flood waters, are being airlifted through Indian Air Force helicopters.
According to Patel 55,000 people have been evacuated for safety and shifted to safer places as water levels increased. Also, power supply remained disrupted in districts of Banaskantha, Patan, Gandhinagar and Kheda districts post the heavy rainfall Central Gujarat.
As many as 32 dams are overflowing. Gujarat’s lifeline Narmada dam is showing 118.89 meter filling or 90.38 per cent of its total capacity. Across the state 42 water reservoirs have been put on high alert.
Meanwhile, 14 more dead bodies recovered from flood affected areas. According to the State Government death toll due to flood has reached 72 and death due to rain related incident has gone up to 125 which include 33 death due to lightening, six and 14 due to electrocution and wall collapse. More than 1100 cattle have died due to floods in the flood as per State Government. The Chief Minister has announced compensation of Rs 4 lakh to each of the next of kin of those killed in the floods.
This is in addition to the Rs 2 lakh compensation announced by Prime Minster Narendra Modi on Tuesday after he conducted aerial survey of flood affected Banaskantha district.