Yamuna swells, flood threat increases in Delhi
By IANSWednesday, September 22, 2010
NEW DELHI - The water level of the Yamuna river continued to rise at Delhi Wednesday as more water from the Hathinikund barrage in Haryana reached the capital, aggravating the threat of flood here.
Wednesday morning the river was flowing at 206.92 metres — 2.09 metres above the danger mark — as over one lakh cusecs of water were released from the Hathinikund barrage located in Haryana.
According to the department of irrigation and flood control, the water level is expected to touch 207.3 metres Thursday morning.
A key, over a century-old bridge over the Yamuna 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.
The release of water from the Hathinikund barrage upstream in Haryana has swollen the Yamuna and it is flowing much above the danger level of 204.83 metres in Delhi.
