Heavy rains in Gujarat; over 600 people shifted to safe places

Several people were shifted to safe places after torrential rains caused severe flooding in South Gujarat’s Valsad and Navsari districts over the weekend.

The continuous downpour since Saturday led to rivers swelling, and dams overflowing in the region.

More than 600 persons from low-lying places were shifted to safety in Valsad district.

On Sunday morning, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel directed the administrations of affected districts to ensure that people were moved out from the vulnerable areas.

In the affected districts, incessant rains since Saturday have flooded low-lying areas, severely disrupting normal life and impeding traffic movement on the State and national highways across the region.

Bhulendra Patel also directed the District Collectors for timely evacuation, safeguarding residents and livestock, and ordered the deployment of State and National Disaster Response Forces (SDRF and NDRF) for required assistance.

In Bharuch and Narmada districts, Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam’s water level touched 135.30 meters, only a few meters below its full capacity of 138.68 meters.

The officials shared that there was an inflow of 2,65,748 cusecs of water from upstream in the Narmada river from Madhya Pradesh. The authorities have opened 15 radial gates for water discharge from the dam.

While 1,75,000 cusecs of water flowed out through the gates, 36,975 and 23,081 cusecs were released from the riverbed powerhouse and canal head powerhouse respectively, as per the details shared by the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd.

Similarly in the Surat district; the Ukai dam over the Tapi river is almost overflowing now due to a heavy inflow of water from the catchment areas.

The 206 reservoirs had 3.64 lakh million cubic feet of water as of Sunday, which is 65% of their total storage capacity, the State government officials said.