Heavy rain continues to batter Saurashtra

Heavy rain continued to pound Devbhumi Dwarka overnight and during the day, flooding low-lying areas in Khambhaliya, Kalyanpur and Dwarka talukas.

“We had to evacuate 20 people from Khambhaliya town and 50 fishermen from coastal Bhogat village in Kalyanpur talukas. No untoward incident has been reported from anywhere in the district though power supply to some villages was disrupted,” said Narendra Kumar Meena, district collector of Devbhumi Dwarka.

In Saurashtra region, power supply to 123 villages was disrupted as 537 electricity poles fell.

Meena added that a team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has reached the district to assist the district administration in any emergency situation.

Meanwhile, an NDRF team and Rajkot fire brigade continued their operation to rescue Bhikho, a 28-year-old man who was swept away in a flooded Khokhaddadi river in Rajkot on Sunday morning. However, continuous rain was hampering their efforts.

“It is raining heavily in the basin of the river and, therefore, the river is still swollen. Our teams are unable to venture into the flooded river and therefore, we have not been able to trace the missing man,” Bhikha Theba, chief fire officer of Rajkot, said, adding the vehicle in which the man was travelling was located.

In Morbi district, Hariom Society area in Tankara town was flooded following four inches of rainfall during the day. Three dams in Devbhumi Dwarka district, six in Jamnagar, seven in Rajkot and one in Porbandar were overflowing and water was being discharged from them. Major dams, which were overflowing, included Sani in Devbhumi Dwarka; Und-I, Kankavati, Fulzar, Vadisang in Jamangar district; Aji-II, Aji-III, Nyari-III and Venu-II in Rajkot and Sorathi in Porbandar.

“An alert has been sounded for Aji-IV in Jamnagar also as we are discharging 2.51 lakh cusecs of water from Aji-III dam. The Aji-IV is already filled up to 70 per cent of its capacity,” an officer in the flood control-room Rajkot irrigation circle said.

The officer added that 24 other major reservoirs, including Bhadar, the second largest dam in Saurasthra and Aji-I, the source of drinking water for Rajkot city, in the region recorded fresh inflow.

Heavy rain disrupted road traffic in some parts of the region. Road connectivity to Bamnasa village in Keshod taluka of Junagadh district was affected after a bridge over Sabli river collapsed on Monday. “It was an old masonry-work bridge. Nobody was injured in the incident and Bamnasa is connected to rest of the district via alternative roads,” Junagadh collector Sourabh Pardhi said.

Ahmedabad city too witnessed rainfall throughout the day with heavy showers towards evening that recorded an average of one inch. Due to a well marked low pressure area over Saurashtra and neighbourhood, the IMD has forecast of very heavy rain till July 9.

Very heavy rain with isolated extremely heavy falls are expected in Rajkot, Jamnagar, Porbandar, Dwarka and Gir Somnath on Tuesday, the IMD bulletin stated. Also, heavy to very heavy rain was very likely at isolated places in Anand, Vadodara, Bharuch, Surat, Navsari, Valsad, Daman, Dadara Nagar Haveli, Junagadh, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Morbi, Kutch, Aravalli, Kheda, Ahmedabad, Panchmahal, Dahod, Mahisagar, Chhota Udepur, Narmada, Surendranagar and Botad.