Keshubhai asks experts to rush to Bhavnagar

By Our Special Correspondent

GANDHINAGAR, SEPT. 12. The Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr. Keshubhai Patel, contacted seismological experts from Delhi and requested them to rush to Bhavnagar after he woke up this morning with a rude shock when an earthquake hit the coastal city followed by a series of about a dozen tremors within a span of just two hours.

Mr. Patel was resting at the Bhavnagar circuit house after attending an official function while campaigning for the ruling BJP in the municipal corporation elections on Monday. The first shock, which measured 3.08 on the Richter scale came at 6.40 a.m. waking the Chief Minister. The city recorded at least 12 tremors. The Chief Minister's press attache, Mr. Jagdish Thakkar, said for a moment he felt as if he was ``rolling in the high seas.'' Bhavnagar had experienced a series of earthquakes in the last few months but it was the first time the intensity had reached 3.08.

The walls of a number of old houses and a few colonies constructed by the State-owned Gujarat Housing Board developed cracks causing concern to the authorities though there was no report of any house collapse or casualty in the earthquake. The State Housing Commissioner and the GHB officials were asked by the Chief Minister to rush to Bhavnagar to make an-on-the spot study of the situation and take necessary corrective measures to avoid a calamity in the future in view of the repeated earthquakes hitting the coastal city.

On his return to the State capital, Mr. Patel sanctioned Rs. 50 lakhs to the Bhavnagar district collector for shifting people, if necessary, carrying out emergency repairs and other measures in the event of an exigency.

At the instance of the Chief Minister, the Health Minister, Mr. Ashok Bhatt, and the senior secretary in-charge of the Bhavnagar district, Mr. K.C. Kapoor, also left for Bhavnagar this afternoon.

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