Gujarat rain fury: Flood-like situation in Saurashtra; NDRF teams deployed

Flood-like situation prevailed in several districts in Gujarat's Saurashtra region as heavy rains continued to batter the state on Saturday, 20 July, cutting off villages and inundating low-lying areas, prompting rescue and relief operations and deployment of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams.

Dwarka taluka in Devbhumi Dwarka district recorded 163 mm of rainfall in 12 hours ended at 6 pm on Saturday, followed by Junagadh city and taluka (133 mm of rainfall), and Patan-Veraval in Gir Somnath district, which received 117 mm rainfall, the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said.

Officials said 10 teams of NDRF were deployed in the affected districts and rescue and relief operations were underway to shift stranded people from water-logged low-lying areas to safer places.

Copious rains caused 16 reservoirs to overflow. Separately, an alert has been issued for 36 reservoirs and 25 dams, including Sardar Sarovar dam, which are filled up to 50 to 70 per cent of their total capacity.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said exceptionally heavy rainfall occurred over Dwarka district in Saurashtra, and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places in Junagadh and Porbandar.

A cyclonic circulation persisted over Saurashtra and Kutch extending up to 5.8 km above the mean sea level and tilting southwestwards, the Met department said forecasting heavy to very heavy rainfall coupled with extremely heavy rains in districts under the Saurashtra region and south Gujarat till Tuesday morning.

Amid heavy rains, Union labour minister and Porbandar MP Mansukh Mandaviya arrived at his constituency to assess the situation and coordinate relief efforts.

The minister convened a meeting to discuss measures being undertaken in areas affected by heavy rain and called for expediting relief efforts.

Incessant heavy rains since Thursday increased the water storage in Sardar Sarovar Dam beyond 55 per cent, the state government said.

Additionally, 206 other reservoirs are filled to 37.87 per cent of their storage capacities so far.