About 350 cars at Ola dump yard submerged by overflowing Hindon

Around 350 cars of online cab aggregator Ola parked at a dump yard in Greater Noida were submerged as water overflowing from the swollen Hindon river entered the low-lying area, police said on Tuesday.

While PTI could not immediately contact Ola for its response, the police said the dump yard is located in the floodplains of the Old Sutiyana village in the Ecotech 3 area.

Pictures and videos of the dump yard, purportedly showing hundreds of cars submerged by the floodwater, also surfaced on the Internet.

"In the village, there is a dump yard of Ola's car. The vehicles recovered during the time of COVID-19 pandemic or those vehicles which got damaged are kept at this yard. The number of these vehicles is around 350. It is built on the land of a person named Satpal. There is a boundary wall around the dump yard, whose caretaker is Dinesh Yadav, who was present on the spot," the police said in a statement.

"The caretaker informed the police that these vehicles are currently parked in the dump yard. The high-level management of Ola was informed about water filling in the dump yard and given a notice by the police to vacate the yard in view of the rising water level of the Hindon river," they added.

Ola officials have been contacted for further proceedings in connection with the dump yard being submerged, the police said.

District administration officials said hundreds of people in the Hindon's floodplains have been impacted by the overflowing river and moved to shelter homes.

District Magistrate Manish Verma, Additional District Magistrate Atul Kumar and Deputy Commissioner of Police Anil Kumar Yadav visited shelter homes in Chhijarsi, Chotpur and Haibatpur to review the situation. Noida MLA Pankaj Singh also visited the impacted villages and interacted with locals as well as government officials.

The district administration has appealed to residents of low-lying areas near the Hindon river to move to safer locations or shelter homes, saying the government is extending all possible help to the people impacted.