Twenty seven trains have been cancelled and seven others have been diverted after the Railways temporary closed the Delhi’s old Yamuna bridge, also called Loha Pul, as the water level in the river reached 205.53 metres.
“At 12.20am, the old Yamuna Bridge temporary closed for rail traffic as water level has reached at 205.53 metre mark,” a Northern Railway official told IANS.
About 3,000 people were evacuated from low-lying areas of Delhi to makeshift camps as the water level in the river continued to rise on Sunday, reaching its highest level in the last five years a day after breaching the danger mark, government officials said.
“We have set up around 550 tents and evacuated around 3,000 people. Food, water and other amenities such as electricity and toilets are being provided. Some people are unwilling to shift,” a Delhi government official said. Such camps were being set up after a gap of two years as the level of water in the river had not swollen to this extent since 2013, he said.
“The water level touched 205.5 metres around 5pm on Sunday. The last time it breached the 205 metres was in 2013 when the water level touched 207.3 metres. In 2013 Haryana, had released around 8 lakh cusecs of water on a single day. This time the maximum water Haryana has released so far is around 6 lakh cusecs. It was released on Saturday evening,” said an official of the irrigation and flood control department (I&FC), requesting not to be named.
The water level is likely to rise to 206.6 metres in the next 48 hours, as it takes at least two days for the water to reach Delhi after being released from Haryana’s Hathnikund Barrage, around 200km north of Delhi. The national capital suffered its worst flood in 1978 when the water level in the Yamuna had touched a record 207.49 metres.
Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday took stock of the ongoing evacuation work. The Delhi government has pressed about 350 officials from the revenue department, flood and irrigation department, Public Works Department, and the Delhi Disaster Management Authority into evacuation work. Around 250 officials from the Delhi Police have also conducting checks in affected areas, making announcement to warn residents.
Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar held an emergency meeting on Sunday to review the situation in Yamunanagar district, where an alert was declared in the wake of rising level of Yamuna river due to heavy rains in the catchment areas. The Yamuna passes through Yamunanagar, Karnal and Panipat districts in Haryana before entering Delhi.
Khattar made an aerial survey of the affected regions, which included 65 villages. He announced a compensation for farmers and said affected areas would be assessed to study the damage caused to crops.
Though rain has abated in the national capital, heavy spells in the upper catchment areas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have led to a sharp rise in level of the Yamuna in Delhi. Evacuation of people, mostly farmers and cattle grazers in the low-lying areas of the floodplain, began on Saturday after the Delhi government issued a flood alert.