With heavy rain lashing Gujarat since Sunday, 11,900 people living in low-lying areas in Vadodara, Bharuch, Narmada, Dahod, Panchmahal, Anand and Gandhinagar districts have been shifted to shelter homes while 270 stranded citizens were rescued. In a statement, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said work is on to clear roads by removing fallen trees. According to officials, more than 6,000 people living along the banks of the Narmada river in Bharuch district have been shifted to safer places in the last two days after the water level rose to 40 feet due to discharge from the Sardar Sarovar Dam. Several areas in Bharuch city and tehsil and many localities and villages in Ankleshwar are still under knee-deep water even though the water level has been decreasing slowly since Monday morning. The current water level of the Narmada river is 37.72 feet, nearly 10 feet above the danger mark of 28 feet, at the Golden Bridge that connects Ankleshwar to Bharuch, said an official of Bharuch Distr
Train traffic on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route resumed slowly around Monday noon nearly 12 hours after it was halted when the Narmada river was flowing above the danger mark between Bharuch and Ankleshwar stations in Gujarat, Western Railway said. Sharing an update on the situation, Western Railway's Chief PRO Sumit Thakur told PTI that the operation of trains on the route from bridge no 502 resumed slowly at around 11:30 am on Monday as the water level of Narmada river receded below the danger mark. The operation of trains on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route between Bharuch and Ankleshwar stations under the Vadodara division stopped after Narmada river waters surged above the danger mark at brigade no. 502 at around 11:50 pm on Sunday. "The railway traffic over the Narmada River bridge has resumed and trains are being operated slowly with caution," Thakur said. He said WR has already set up helpline numbers and passengers are being updated about the status of trains through a public ...
Canals with a cumulative length of nearly 6,000 km are yet to be constructed as part of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada project, the Gujarat government told the legislative assembly on Friday. Replying to a written query by Congress MLA Arjun Modhwadia on the status of the Narmada project, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, who handles the Narmada portfolio, said canals with a cumulative length of 5,975.62 km are yet to be built. Although the main canal running up to 458.32 kilometres has been completed, 0.92 km of branch canals, 171.67 km of distributaries, 1,070.84 km of minor canals and 4,732.19 km of sub-minor canals are yet to be constructed in the state, Patel said in his written reply during the Question Hour. He said pending works of minor canals would be completed at the earliest, subject to land acquisition and grant of permissions by various departments, as they passed through forests, sanctuaries and under utilities like oil pipelines and power lines. Since sub-minor canals are
Amidst the ongoing water crisis even as summer sets in, Gujarat has now sought more than double the amount of water from Madhya Pradesh. Due to water shortage, while MP releases 600 cusecs of water daily, Gujarat has asked the same to be increased to 1500 cusecs.While it has been facing crisis on both agricultural and domestic fronts, Gujarat government has cited impact of lower quantity of water on coastal and marine environment as the reason in its demand.The demand has been made to the Narmada Control Authority (NCA), a nodal agency managing water allocation. Nitin Patel, deputy chief minister of Gujarat, however, has stated that the government has sought more Narmada waters on a "permanent basis" and not because of water shortage currently. "We have sought it looking at the environment impact it will have on the coastal and marine bio diversity. It is necessary for more waters to be released."According to Patel, the demand for more Narmada water has been made in order to protect ..