Thaindian News

New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS) The water level of the Yamuna river once again crossed the critical 207-metre mark in Delhi as more water from the Hathinikund barrage in Haryana reached the capital Wednesday, aggravating the threat of floods here.
Breaking a 32-year-record, Haryana released a maximum discharge of 744,507 cusecs water from Hathinikund barrage Monday.

The water level reached 207.05 metres Wednesday evening, 2.22 metres above the danger mark of 204.83 metres. It is expected to rise further to 207.30 metres by Thursday.

“I have not seen so much water in the Yamuna in my career of 30 years,” an official of the flood control department told IANS.

“We are fully geared… low-lying areas have been evacuated. There has not been any major discharge from Hathinikund in the past two days, the situation will remain under control,” he said.

A key bridge over the Yamuna, more than a century old and linking the capital with its eastern district and western Uttar Pradesh, was closed to traffic Tuesday as the river water crossed the danger mark.

This necessitated diversion of traffic to other roads and the National Highway 24 that runs from Delhi to Aligarh and Moradabad in western Uttar Pradesh, causing traffic jams.

Several low-lying areas of Delhi like New Usmanpur, Sarita Vihar, Kalindi Kunj, Jamia Nagar and Wazirabad were flooded Tuesday and people were shifted to temporary shelter camps.

Over two dozen trains from and to the Old Delhi Railway Station were diverted to other routes as services across the Old Railway Bridge — a double-decker road-cum-rail iron girder structure built in 1868 — were suspended.

A discharge of over six lakh cusecs of water from Haryana earlier this month had also caused a flood threat. However, the water was dispersed as parts of the embankment were damaged in Panipat in Haryana, letting some of the water out.