Vadodara on alert following rising level of Vishwamitri

Vadodara, 26 July 2014

Due to 5.25 inch rain on Friday evening, Vishwamitri river in Vadodara touched 24.3 ft level in the morning which further went up to 25 ft at noon time. The danger level of this river which passes through the city of Vadodara is 26 ft.

Local administration has started an exercise of shifting over 1,000 people living in low lying areas like Parshuram Bhaththa, Sama, Sanjaynagar, Nizampura, Jalaram nagar.

62 gates of Ajva reservoir were opened in the night as the level crossed 212 ft mark.

Vishwamitri passes through the middle of Vadodara city. Its level goes up when extra water is released from Aajva and Pratappura reservoirs.

Water released from Ajwa to Vishwamitri river mixes with Dhadhar river after Vadodara. Carriage capacity of Dhadhar river varies as per the situation at Dev dam. If there’s huge water release from Dev dam, Dhadhar river fails to take extra water of Vishwamitri. At present there’s no such situation, and therefore water is flowing smoothly beyond Vadodara and therefore levels are not likely to go up at level which is beyond control.

Around two dozen people trapped in an open water logged field near Atladra were rescued by administration.

Mayor of Vadodara Bharatbhai Shah briefed DeshGujarat: As water level at Ajwa was above its prescribed mark and IMD predicted very heavy rain fall after couple of days from now in Vadodara, a decision was taken to release water from Ajwa before heavy rainfall strikes here. Water level in Vishwamitri is not likely to go beyond danger level at this point, but then we are not God. If suddenly very heavy rainfall occurs, then level may go further up. But level beyond 27 ft only would need attention. At present level, around 700 people are shifted from low lying areas. It is good that rainfall is not continuing at this point. Water release from Ajwa will be stopped once it is at 211 level.

Leader of opposition in VMC: The administration didn’t alert people in low lying areas in advance. Even at this point it is not clear that how much the level of Vishwamitri will go up in next few hours. VMC should communicate the latest situation to people. The actual flood situation occurs only if level crosses 32 ft.It is good that there’s no rain at present. If there’s heavy rainfall on upstream areas of Ajwa reservoir then situation has to be watched out.