Rains claim 3 in Gujarat, Surat on alert

Heavy rains threw life out of gear in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and other places in the state on Thursday, even as the meteorological department has forecast more rains
in the city and state over the next two days.

The rainfall was widespread in South Gujarat in the last 24 hours, where many places received very heavy rains. Surat city received more than four inch rains today, affecting day-to-day life. Water level in Ukai dam rose to 337.74 feet at 6:00pm on Thursday, and was likely to go up further, as 1.76 lakh cusec water was flowing into the dam, while 1.60 lakh cusec water was being released.

Officials said that 1,172 people living in low-lying areas in the vicinity of rivulets were shifted to safer places due to increase in level of rivulets on account of release of water from Ukai.

The authorities were on alert to shift more people, they said. Rainfall was also widespread in other parts of Surat district, while Valsad, Navsari and Dangs too received heavy to extremely heavy rains.

The Narmada dam started overflowing this afternoon and in the evening the water level touched 123.58 metre. This was due to inflow of eight lakh cusec of water in the dam because of heavy rainfall in the catchment areas. Officials said the dam’s water level was rising by about 20 cm every hour and it could touch 125.20 metre by the early hours of Friday.