Rains disrupt life in Gujarat; several trains cancelled

Rajkot/Vadodara: Heavy rains pounded the Saurashtra region in Gujarat, disrupting normal life and bringing rail and road traffic to a near halt even as over 3,000 people were shifted to safer places due to overflowing of dams, authorities said today.


While over 3,000 people have been shifted to safer places since yesterday in the Saurashtra region, 7,700 marooned people have been shifted in the last two days in Vadodara in Central Gujarat, they said.

Heavy downpour wreaked havoc in all seven districts in Saurashtra, including Rajkot, in the last 36 hours, with Rajkot alone recording over 500 mm rainfall since Tuesday evening.

Bhadar dam, located about 39 kms from here, which is the main source of drinking water to Rajkot district, is overflowing as also Aji and Nyari dams, forcing administration to issue alert in nearby towns.

"As many as one thousand people were given shelter in government-run schools last night as low-laying areas like Jungleshwar, Popat Para, Rail Nagar submerged due to rising water levels following overflowing of Aji and Nyari dams", Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) Commissioner Ajay Bhadoo said.

While schools and colleges remained closed in Rajkot and Vadodara towns today, skeletal staff is present in government offices as well as in nationalised and cooperative banks.

Due to incessant rains, the Western Railway (Rajkot division) cancelled a number of services, including ones connecting Mumbai.

"Duo to water-logging and breaches on rail tracks at some places, several long-distance trains had to be cancelled," said Western Railway (Rajkot division) PRO Vivek Tiwari.

Among the services that are cancelled are eight trains originating from Mumbai, two each from Ahmedabad and Rajkot, and one each from Vadodara and Bhanagar, he said.