The Hindu : Other States / Gujarat News : Army called out in flood-hit Vadodara

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Friday, Jul 01, 2005

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Army called out in flood-hit Vadodara

Special Correspondent

Entire district cut off; schools, colleges closed

AHMEDABAD: It was a day of deluge in Vadodara city where the Army has been called out to assist the civilian authorities in evacuating people from the low-lying areas engulfed in flood waters caused by heavy downpour since Wednesday night.

The weather office reported more than 350 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours. This coupled with continuous heavy rainfall in the catchment areas in the neighbouring Panchamahals district resulted in overflowing from the Ajwa and Pratapura dams forcing the authorities to open all the gates of the dams. This led to flash floods in the Vishwamitri river that cuts through the city.

According to the Vadodara district collector, Rajiv Topno, more than 30,000 people had been shifted to safer places while elsewhere in the State more than one lakh people had been evacuated to safety. Rain water has entered in most of the houses in the relatively low-lying areas where power supply has also been discontinued. The authorities have closed down schools and colleges in the city till Sunday while many private offices remained closed on Thursday.

Normal life was totally disrupted in the city and other parts of the district which virtually remained cut off from the rest of the State.

The Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, conducted an aerial survey of some of the affected areas, particularly Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surendranagar and Bhavnagar districts despite inclement weather and later held a high-level meeting in Gandhinagar to streamline the rescue and relief measures. He said the State government would seek special assistance from the Centre for repairing of roads and other infrastructure facilities damaged in the current rains and floods.

Besides Vadodara, many parts of Surat city and Anand towns also remained under water.

One column of army has been kept on stand-by in Surat while another column is stationed at Rajkot for rescue operations. The police and fire brigade personnel with boats and other equipment were engaged in rescuing the stranded people in Surendranagar, Surat, Anand and other centres.

The rail and road traffic to and from the State were badly hit due to the continuous downpour.

Many of the highways had to be closed down and even the newly-constructed Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway was put out of service.

Most of the trains from Ahmedabad to Mumbai were cancelled or re-routed as rain water flooded the tracks near Anand and Vadodara. With Vadodara airport too closed for traffic, at least two planes from Mumbai were diverted to land at Ahmedabad airport.

The death toll in the current rains and floods in the State has reached 51.

At least three deaths were reported from Vadodara today while two persons were killed in Surendranagar district, an official spokesman said here.

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Army called out in flood-hit Vadodara