Carving out a special time from his 5-city hectic election campaign schedule, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today visited Porbandar district’s tremor affected Advana village.

Modi reached Advana to give strenth to the people who are living in fear due to frequent tremor shocks. The administration has allotted 100 tents to the people of Advana. The people of this village live in tents nowadays. Some houses have developed cracks due to frequent tremors in the village.

There were as many as 81 tremors experienced in this area in the month of September this year.The earthquakes were up to 3.0 in the Richter scale and therefore of normal intensity according to Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA), quoting experts from the Institute of Seismological Research (ISR)

Heavy rainfall often results in aftershocks with the rise in the underground water table. According to ISR geophysicists and hydrologists, the subsurface water has gone up by about 30 metres in heavy rainfall areas this monsoon. The state had faced similar situation during 2006 and 2007, the intensity going up to 3.0 on the Richter scale.

The most powerful quake in this series was 3.0 on Richter scale on September 23, 2010 at 11.4 p.m., which was felt mainly at Advana, Bhumiavadar, Sodhana and Majivana. The epicenter of most of these were in Lalpur-Bhanwad talukas. However, commenting on these quakes, the experts said, there is no need to panic but people should remain alert.

Even as the Gandhinagar-based ISR keep round the clock track on the earth’s slightest movement, an ISR team led by Mr. Sandip Agrawal, joined by GSDMA district project officers, toured the two districts on September 16 and 17 and installed a strong motion oscillograph for finer observation on round the clock bases.

As a follow-up action, GSDMA officers, acquainted with local situations, held informal meetings with the people of the affected region and distributed literature on quakes.

In collaboration with respective district authorities, GSDMA plans to hold training camps to involve people’s involvement as precautionary measure.