Heavy rain lashes state; over 2,000 evacuated in Bharuch

The heavy downpour in Surat flooded areas in the city,disrupting normal life. Schools closed down due to water-logging. Rain started in the city on Thursday night onwards and continued through the whole day on Friday. As it continued to rain, low-lying areas in the city like Ved Road,Katargam,Sagrampura,Navsari Bazaar,Nanpura and Rander got flooded. The residents were seen moving household items to places above the ground level,like the terrace of their homes. Some children got trapped inside their schools when water started entering the campus. In many places,power supply was also disrupted.

According to Ukai dam officials,the water level in the dam was 332.71 feet,inching towards the 345-feet mark. Sources said that since Thursday afternoon,the Ukai dam received heavy inflow of 1,200 million cubic metres of water from upper catchment areas in 48 hours. Due to such high inflow,the dam authorities had started discharging 2 lakh cusec from the dam.

Dam officials said that as rain had halted in the upper catchment areas of Ukai dam,there was nothing to worry. The dam officials will continue discharging 2 lakh cusec of water till Saturday and the hydro power generation plant was also kept running. According to weather department officials,in the last 24 hours,the rainfall measured in Surat city was 120 mm.

The local meteorological department said that the situation would continue till Sunday. “A system has developed over the Bay of Bengal. Low pressure area near western Madhya Pradesh and adjoining areas is likely to result in fairly widespread rains over the state,” Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) regional director Jayant Sarkar said.

“This situation will persist till Sunday. Heavy to very heavy rainfall is expected over North Gujarat,South Gujarat,Saurashtra,Diu,Daman and Dadra-Nagar Haveli over the next 24 hours,” Sarkar further said. Low-lying areas in Ahmedabad and Surat were flooded even as rain continued to lash major parts of the state.