7.500 Shifted To Camps As Yamuna Remains In Spate

Thousands living on the Yamuna floodplains shifted to roads along the Yamuna as the river continued to flow above the “evacuation mark” at 206 metres with the Central Water Commission saying that the water level may cross 207metres by 3am on Wednesday.

- Snehil Sinha and Paras Singh

NEW DELHI: According to officials, a water level of 204.5 metres is considered the “warning level”, 205.33 metres is considered “danger level” and 206 metres is taken as the “evacuation level”.

Thin bamboo sticks and thick plastic sheets were strewn across the roadside throughout the stretch from Noida Link Road to Mayur Vihar, DND Flyway, nursery pushta and across the length of NH24 up to near Pragati Maidan on Tuesday morning as thousands started building makeshift shelters.

With a gradual increase due to 2.1 to 3.5 lakh cusecs of water being discharged every hour from Hathnikund barrage, near Yamuna Nagar in Haryana, the river rose from 206.08metres at 1am to 206.69metres at 7pm.

Development minister Gopal Rai said officials have been instructed to provide all basic facilities to the evacuees. “Approximately 2,700 relief centres/tents were established by the government for relief and rescue, which can accommodate around 27,000 individuals,” he said. The government has set up shelters in places such as Geeta Colony, Madanpur Khadar, Garhi Mandu, Palla, Hiranki, Yamuna Bazar and Mayur Vihar.

Besides the shelters set up by the governments hundreds of others have started erecting tents by the roadside, moving their families to the spots.