Saturday, July 2 2005 15:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ahmedabad: Incessant rainfall in Gujarat has left a trail of destruction, damaging roads and railway lines, snapping communication links and leaving several places marooned.

The torrential rains have submerged nearly 70 per cent of the State under water, forcing people to move to higher areas, at some places rooftops of houses and railway platforms, to escape the rising waters.

Nearly two crore people have been affected due to the near continuous rainfall that has left villages marooned, railway lines hanging precariously and roads waterlogged.

People in 8,000-10,000 villages have been affected due to rains during the past week, which has prompted Chief Minister Narendra Modi to declare the situation as an "aerial tsunami."

"No living person can recollect such incessant rainfall. It has been raining continuously for 100 hours," Modi said.

Over 2.5 lakh people have been evacuated from the cities alone, while no information was available on the evacuation carried out in the rural areas, official sources said.

"The heavy rains have damaged the state-of-the-art Vadodara-Ahmedabad Expressway," Modi said.

The Met office said the weather was improving slowly, but it would still continue to rain for two more days. But before the State heaves a sigh of relief, the weatherman has warned of another spell of rainfall, though of a lesser intensity.

Army and paramilitary forces have been pressed into service to carry out relief work, while IAF helicopters were making sorties airdropping food packets and rescuing stranded people.

The "aerial tsunami" has led to overflowing of 54 dams in the State, while eight have been damaged, the worst being 30 feet breach in the 230-feet tall Pratapura dam on the outskirts of Vadodara leading to waterlogging, they said.

If the breach does not spread it would take three days to drain out the excess water in the reservoir and flooding of Vadodara city cannot be ruled out.

Parts of Vadodara city and most areas of Anand and Kheda district of South Gujarat are under 10-12 feet of water. Most villages and smaller cities too are inundated.

Rivers Mahisagar, Shedhi, Vatrak and Vishwamitri are in spate.

The incessant rains have damaged roads, including state and national highways, at 3,700 locations and have not spared modern expressways built using state-of-the-art technology.

The downpour has snapped rail connectivity, specially on the crucial Ahmedabad-Mumbai sector, leaving passengers stranded at several places.

As many as 40 Army boats had been air-lifted and 28 more were likely to be in position by tomorrow morning to rescue people affected due to the flood. Chlorine tablets, bleaching powder for providing safe drinking water were being airlifted in large quantities to the State.

As many as 12 helicopters of the Indian Air Force were kept in readiness at the Ahmedabad Airport, which was the only airport operational. Vadodara Airport was non-functional for any landing or take-off of planes.