Heavy rains over the past couple of days in south and central districts of Gujarat created a flood-like situation, officials said on Monday.
Over 6,000 people from several low-lying areas in the affected districts have been evacuated, they said, adding that rivers are overflowing in these areas due to incessant heavy rainfall.
Several roads and bridges received damages due to the non-stop rains causing problems to the people in the affected areas.
Officials also mentioned that as many as 13 dams have been put on ‘high alert’ and eight on ‘alert’ after their water levels rose following the showers.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister of Gujarat, Bhupendra Patel held an emergency meeting on Sunday to take stock of the measures being taken to deal with the situation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also assured all possible help from the central government to Patel.
Officials further said that the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams and local administration are undertaking relief and rescue operations in the places affected by the heavy rains.
Around 1,000 people were shifted to safer places from various rain-hit parts in Valsad, while as many as 5,245 people were evacuated to safer places in the Udepur district.
Moreover, with the Kaveri and Ambika rivers flowing above the danger levels, the Navsari district authorities have been put on alert. Near to 300 people in the low-lying regions have been shifted to safer places in Navsari.
It may be noted that the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had on Sunday predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall with isolated extremely heavy showers for the next five in the Dang, Navsari and Valsad districts of the state.
According to the weather body, several other districts in the south and central Gujarat and the Saurashtra region will also likely receive heavy to very heavy rainfall during this period.
The State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) shared data which showed that Gujarat has received 36 per cent of its average annual rainfall so far.
