Saturday’s earthquake took the people of Gujarat back to the agonising memory lane of the devastating earthquake that shock the State around one and a half decade ago. The aftershock of the Nepal quake was also felt in Gujarat. People in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and other parts of the State came out of the buildings.
“Massive earthquake in Nepal is saddening. Having witnessed the destruction an earthquake can cause, I hope & pray for minimum loss of lives,” said Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel. “I could immediately feel the tremor. Intensity was much lower than what I experienced in 2001. But as our building shook at around 12.00 noon, our family and neighbours rushed out of the building,” said one Babubhai Patel.
“Though the tremor took every one of us to the nightmare of 2001 earthquake, there is no damage to property or human life reported,” said a senior official of Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority. Due to the devastating earthquake of magnitude 6.9 on Richter scale on January 26, 2001 at 8.46 am with a depth of 16 km, more than 20,000 people were killed and nearly 1.67 lakh people were injured in the State.
In wake of powerful earthquake, the Anandiben Government instantly started a helpline to bring back Gujarati tourists back to their home State. “Being a tourist destination and a vacation time, many tourists from Gujarat have gone to Nepal. We are in contact of travel agents to trace out numbers of Gujarati tourists. It is quite possible that many of them are stranded there,” said a GSDMA official. According to him, the State Government started a control room for tourists stranded in Nepal and their kin. People can give and also take information from number 079-23251900, he added.