(Ahmedabad, July 30) More than 25,000 people have been evacuated from low-lying areas in five districts of Gujarat as heavy rains continued to lash the state for the third consecutive day Sunday, officials said.
The administration was put on alert in Anand, Vadodara, Bharuch, Surat and Navsari districts in central and south Gujarat region as water levels were rising in many rivers.
Chief Minister Narendra Modi has instructed the disaster management wing to assess the situation, even as the weather office forecast heavy rain in the next 48 hours.
An alert has been sounded on the banks of the Narmada river as the Sardar Sarovar dam was expected to overflow by late Sunday, according to a senior Narmada district official.
Meanwhile, 7,192 people from 17 villages in Bharuch district, 7,400 from the low-lying areas on the banks of Ambika and Purna rivers in Navsari district, 1,406 from 13 villages of Anand district, 1,155 from seven villages of Kheda district, and about 6,650 from Vadodara district have been shifted to safer places, said flood control officials.
With the three-day incessant rains, the toll of rain-related deaths across the state in July has reached 44.
Traffic on the National Highway No 8, linking Ahmedabad with Mumbai, has been disrupted as the stretch of the road between Kim and Koshamba in Surat district has been submerged under water.
The continuous rains have resulted in water logging in Ahmedabad too.
Rail traffic between Ahmedabad and Mumbai has been affected. All trains between the two cities were stopped late Saturday night following the overflowing of a river near Surat.
It was partially resumed Sunday after rail authorities tested the tracks and allowed two goods train and a passenger train to cross the bridge.