Gujarat Rains: Orange Alert in Several Districts for Today, Train Services Hit | Updates

Ahmedabad: Gujarat, which is reeling under the devastation caused by the heavy rains over the past few days, will continue to receive showers on Saturday. Meanwhile, the IMD has issued rain alerts in several districts. As rains wreaked havoc in the state, several places remained inundated, crippling daily life. The rains were being attributed to deep depression which formed over the Arabian sea on Friday. The heavy rain prompted authorities to evacuate over 3,000 people from low-lying areas and shifted them to safer places. Though the cyclonic storm is likely to move West-Northwest over the Northeast Arabian sea and away from the Indian Coast during the next 24 hours, state will continue to receive rains in the day.

Top Updates:

• An orange alert for very heavy rains has been issued for several Gujarat districts. Met department has predicted, “Heavy to very heavy rains very likely at isolated places in all the districts of Saurashtra-Kutch namely Surendranagar, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Porbandar, Junagadh, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Morbi, Dwarka, Gir Somnath, Botad, Kutch and in Diu.”
  While an yellow alert for heavy rains has been issued in the districts of South Gujarat region namely Bharuch, Surat, Dang, Tapi, Navsari, Valsad and in Daman, Dadara Nagar Haveli for today..
• The Indian Meteorological Department on Saturday shared an update on Cyclone Asna, saying it is likely to move West-Northwest over the Northeast Arabian sea and away from the Indian Coast during the next 24 hours.
• In a tweet, IMD wrote, Cyclonic Storm "Asna" over the northeastern Arabian Sea, near the Pakistan coast, moved westward at a speed of 14 kmph. Its current position is at latitude 23.6°N and longitude 66.4°E, approximately 250 km west of Naliya (Gujarat), 160 km south-southwest of Karachi (Pakistan), and 350 km east-southeast of Pasni (Pakistan).
• As a precautionary measure, the local administration shifted around 3,500 people to safer areas and advised residents of huts and mud houses to move to sturdier buildings, according to Kutch district collector Amit Arora. Arora added, “Since the cyclone has already entered the sea and is heading towards Oman, there was an impact on the coast. Except for some rain and winds blowing at considerable speed, there was no impact here. There was no immediate news about injury or death or collapse of any major structure."
• The rains have disrupted train services in the state with many trains being cancelled. Owing to waterlogging between Dwarka and Bhimrana in the Rajkot Division, the 09479 Rajkot-Okha Passenger Special (Unreserved) scheduled for August 31 and the 09480 Okha-Rajkot Passenger Special (Unreserved) scheduled for the same day have been cancelled while 15667 Gandhidham-Kamakhya Exp scheduled for August 31 will be diverted via Maliya Miyana-Halvad-Dhrangadhra-Viramgam.