Yamuna in spate,Old Bridge shut

The Northern Railway closed the 145-year-old Old Yamuna Bridge,which connects East Delhi to the rest of the city,for rail and road traffic. The bridge was closed after the water level touched the its bearings.

“The water level was being constantly monitored by rail officials. By noon,it was found that the water level in the river reached till the bearings of the bridge. We also noticed that the oil used for greasing the bearings was getting mixed with the river water,” a senior Railways official said.

Railways officials said the train movement on Old Yamuna Bridge will remain suspended till the water levels recede. Around 53 trains were either diverted or cancelled,of which nine trains will be short terminated at Shahdara,Ghaziabad or Sahibabad stations.

Also,due to high silt levels at hydro power stations,about 4,000 MW of power generation was affected in North India. At 9 pm on Tuesday,all machinery at the Rihand Thermal Power Station that has generation capacity of 2,500 MW went under forced outage due to auxiliary supply failure.

“Delhi has a 250 MW allocation from this power plant. The 6,500 MW reduction in generation in the Northern region has resulted in increased load on the inter- regional lines,particularly the 765 KV Gwalior-Agra link. To avoid tripping of this line,load shedding between 100 to 250 MW was carried out between 9 pm and midnight on Tuesday. Another 150 MW was shed between 11.30 am and 12.30 pm on Wednesday. Of the 2,500 MW capacity,Rihand Power Station has started generating 1,500 MW power,” a spokesperson for Delhi Transco said.

With the increasing level of water in the entire floodplain area,power distribution company BSES has suspended electricity supply to residents in the low-lying areas along the riverbed. Power connections to two Ranney wells of DJB — in Laxmi Nagar and Krishna Nagar — has also been suspended.

“Electricity has been suspended in some areas till further notice. These areas include Vishwakarma Colony,Jaitpur,Dhobi Ghat,near Masjid Khallilullah and Batla House,” a BSES spokesperson said.

Making use of GIS mapping,the discom has mapped all assets within 500 metres of the Yamuna,which flows through eight divisions in BSES operational areas.

“BYPL has switched off 82 power connections in the Badarpur Khader area,falling in the Karawal Nagar division,as a safety measure. In the Yamuna Vihar district,172 connections have been switched off in the low-lying areas of Garhi Mandu,Usmanpur,Gurdwara Nanakpur and Bela farm,” the spokesperson said.

Officials expect the water levels to start receding by Thursday morning. “The water levels have already peaked and the discharge in the river has reduced to 77,000 cusecs. We expect the water level to start receding from Thursday morning,” Revenue Secretary Dharampal said.

The highest recorded water level in the Yamuna was 207.49 metres in 1978.