Amidst rain-driven blackouts in Gujarat, Centre orders ICR facilities for nine districts

The directive, made to Bharti Airtel, BSNL, RelianceJio, and Vi late on Wednesday, asked the TSPs to activate ICR facilities in districts across three regions of Gujarat. They include Jamnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Morbi, Rajkot, and Porbandar districts in the Saurashtra region, Central Gujarat’s Vadodara, Kheda and Anand districts, and the district of Kutch.

“If you are trapped somewhere, go to the network menu, search a network, and use whichever is available,” the district administration of Devbhumi Dwarka said in a communication.

“Mobile telecom networks have become unstable in Devbhumi Dwarka as around 100 villages are without electricity supply and TSP towers are not functioning. Due to incessant rains and gusty winds, teams are unable to reach remote areas for repairs,” GT Pandya, district collector of Devbhumi Dwarka, told The Indian Express on Thursday.

The Centre’s directive says the provision also applies to those who visit the districts from other states. The provision itself is “in accordance with clause 29.6 of unified license and as per provisions of SOP-2020 (sic) for responding to disasters”, according to the directive.

The directive comes in the aftermath of 613 villages of Saurashtra-Kutch regions facing blackout as of Wednesday evening while heavy rains and gusty winds damaged or uprooted 1122 electricity poles and 67 transformers. The villages include 369 of them in Jamnagar and Devbhumi Dwarka districts, 62 in Porbandar, 54 in Rajkot, 46 in Morbi, 31 in Amreli, 16 in Surendranagar, 13 each in Bhavnagar and Botad, seven in Kutch and two in Junagadh.

“There is no improvement in the flood situation as compared to Wednesday as it continues to rain. However, the intensity of rain has fallen today and we are expecting the flood situation to ease in some time. However, winds gusting up to 48 kilometres per hour are hampering relief and rescue work,” said Pandya.

Bhanvad block of Devbhumi Dwarka district logged around five inches of rainfall in the past 16 hours ending at 10 am on Thursday. During the same period, Kalyanpur, Khambhalia, and Dwarka blocks of that district respectively recorded five, three, and three inches of rainfall. This was after Khambhalia was pounded by 27 inches of rainfall in 60 hours ending at 6 PM on Wednesday. During the same period, Kalyanpur and Bhanvad were lashed by 18 inches of rain each and Dwarka 17 inches. Thus, since Monday, Khambhali, Bhanvad, Kalyanpur, and Dwarka blocks have respectively logged 30, 23, 22, and 20 inches of rainfall.

Meanwhile, as the deep depression, the cause of extremely heavy rainfall in the state, moved towards Kutch, the Kutch district has been experiencing heavy rainfall since Wednesday. Mandvi and Mundra blocks of Kutch recorded around seven inches of rain each in 16 hours ending at 10 am on Thursday.