Surat: At least 1 ,000 people were shifted to safer places from Olpad town in Surat district and several villages of Navsari district by the authorities concerned after their dwellings were either inundated or faced threat from rising water level of rivers and creeks following heavy rain in the past 24 hours until 8am on Monday.Major parts of Olpad in Surat district were inundated by water ever since heavy rain began to lash the town on Sunday night. Around 486 people were shifted by the district administration from Halpativas, Adarsh Nagar and other localities on Hathisa Road to temporary relief centres built at a primary school, a college and a community centre. Olpad taluka recorded 180mm of rain during the period.District collector Dhaval Patel told TOI, “The pattern of rainfall is different this monsoon. There is heavy downpour in a short period of time. Drains don’t have the carrying capacity to take so much of water at a given point of time. Thus, it is leading to waterlogging.” Olpad-Ankleshwar-Kim Road has been closed because it is waterlogged. Orma village road too is flooded at many places. Many people chose to shift to another place on their own from Olpad too.Mukesh Patel, MLA, who was in Olpad town, said, “The water level in the creeks of Surat district is increasing because high tide in the sea has been pushing back the rainwater, blocking its outlet for the time being. There was three-feet deep water on College Road and Hathisa Road in Olpad town. The water is unlikely to recede here anytime soon because there will be high tide in the sea that lies 2km from Olpad town on Tuesday too.”Meanwhile, water level of Ambika river that passes through Navsari district rose to danger mark on Tuesday after heavy rain in its catchment areas of Kaprada taluka of Valsad. Against the danger mark of 28 feet, the river was flowing at 27.55 feet near Chikhli in Navsari. Hence, the district administration shifted nearly 450 people from a number of villages around Chikli and Gandevi talukas of Navsari district. Most of the people shifted were from Vijalpore, Chikhli, Toran, Gandevi, Devdha, Undach and Billimora town.Navsari district collector Dr MD Modiya said, “We shifted 450 people from several villages for precautionary measures. The water level in the river has come down a bit and it was now flowing at 26.24 feet. We don’t need to shift anymore people now.”Dr Modiya has started posting alerts via Twitter for the people to know about the latest situation.The water level in Auranga river also reached danger mark near Valsad after good rain in its catchment areas in Dang and Dharmapur. Valsad district collector CR Kharsan said,“We have started releasing water at the rate of 1.25 lakh cusecs from Madhuban Dam into Daman Ganga river. After 70mm of rain in Kaprada taluka of Valsad district, the water level in the river rose.” The water level at Madhuban dam was at present 72.50 feet against the danger mark of 78 feet near Vapi. Notably, a portion of the historical fort of Gaekwad era in Vyara town in Tapi district was washed away due to rain on Monday evening.

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