Several parts of Saurashtra in Gujarat were battered by heavy to very heavy rain, leading to deaths of three persons. Over 1,500 people have been moved to safety, forcing the government to press the Indian Air Force (IAF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams in to service.
In fact, 28 districts in the state received over three inches of rain in the last 24 hours. “The state has received 270 mm or 33.4% of rain, compared to 20% it received last year,” Pankaj Kumar, Principal Secretary, revenue department, Gujarat, said on his social media handle.
According to the Met department figures, Rajkot received about 440 mm of rain from 2.30 am to 5.30 pm on Saturday. The city that has monthly average rainfall of 253.4 mm has seen the highest spell of rain in over a decade.
Over 1,500 people have been relocated to safety in Morbi district, with a maximum of 1,320 in Tankara. Notably Morbi, Gir Somnath and Banaskantha districts witnessed up to 13 inches of rain a fortnight ago, prompting NDRF to be pressed in to service and additional teams kept on standby at Gandhinagar and Vadodara. The highway connecting Surendranagar and Ahmedabad had to be shut down as several rural areas in the region were inundated by waters.
As many as 13 dams in the region were overflowing, forcing authorities to open the gates to release excess water in Jamnagar, Morbi, Dhrangadhra and Rajkot districts.
Heavy rain in M’rashtra
Popular tourist spots like Bushi Dam in Lonavla and Malshej Ghats spread over Thane and Pune districts were shut as heavy rain lashed Maharashtra for the third consecutive day on Saturday. The Nashik district that received heavy rain on Friday, however, was returning to normalcy.
The suburban areas of Mumbai Metropolitan Region, too, received heavy rainfall leading to traffic mess in several places like the Mumbra Bypass, where traffic slowed down. The Modak Sagar Dam that supplies drinking water to Mumbai corporation, started overflowing from Saturday morning.
The Mumbai rainfall can be attributed to the presence of a well-marked low pressure area which is presently over West Madhya Pradesh and adjoining East Rajasthan. The system is expected to become a depression in the next 48 hours, according to Skymet Weather.
Published 15 July 2017, 21:00 IST