Guj relieved as storm weakens

The state of Gujarat that witnessed the deaths of four persons due to heavy rains heaved a sigh of relief on Tuesday, as the cyclonic storm over the state dissipated.

"The off-shore trough over Gujarat dissipated late on Monday evening and the cyclonic system over Gujarat has got diverted towards Madhya Pradesh. This has resulted in lower intensity of rains over the state," Jayanta Sarkar, director, Met Department in Ahmedabad said.

The Met department had predicted heavy to very heavy rains across the state of Gujarat till Thursday.

As per the Met department statistics released on Tuesday evening, most of the major towns and cities in the state that had received heavy to very heavy rains till Tuesday morning, witnessed almost no rain since.

"Rainfall occurred at most places over South Gujarat region, at many places over North Gujarat and isolated places over Saurashtra region," the Met department said in its bulletin.

Giving figures, the Met depatment said that Valsad received maximum rains, with a total of 291 mm till 8.30 am on Tuesday, followed by Vadodara, with 74.3 mm rains.

Talking about the possibility of rains over coming 24 hours, Met department director said that there would be scattered heavy rains over Central and Eastern parts of Gujarat, including Chhota Udepur, Panchmahals, Mahisagar, as well as Northern districts of Sabarkantha, Arvalli and Gandhinagar.

"The districts of Porbandar, Dwarka, Okha in Saurashtra and Kutch too will witness scattered rains," Sarkar said.

Meanwhile, the state has kept 13 teams of NDRF on a standby across the state.