Bhopal/Bhubaneswar/Dhanbad:The Indian Air Force has deployed two helicopters for relief operations in Madhya Pradesh's flood-hit Vidisha district, officials said on Tuesday. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will also conduct an aerial survey of the rain-affected district on Tuesday, they said.
Many parts of MP, including Bhopal, witnessed heavy downpours over the last few days, leading to power supply disruptions in the state capital and other places. Rains stopped in Bhopal on Tuesday and the power supply was restored after more than 24 hours in parts of the city, which had witnessed tree falls and traffic snarls over the last couple of days due to heavy showers and strong winds blowing at up to 40 km per hour, officials said.
After the long power cut in Bhopal, MP central zone power distribution company called in its workers from neighboring districts to restore supply in the capital city, an official said. Some residents complained they faced power outages for more than 30 hours. Schools in some districts including Bhopal and Vidisha remained closed for the second day on Tuesday, officials said.
Meanwhile, at least eight trains were diverted on Tuesday following the inundation of tracks due to heavy rain, which disrupted the rail traffic between Guna and Maksi in Madhya Pradesh. "Due to incessant rains, flood water reached the railway tracks in Biaora and Kumbhraj, leading to disruption of the rail traffic on the Guna-Maksi route," said Guna station master RS Meena.
He said while the eight trains were diverted, the Bina-Nagda train was cancelled. Meena said the Bina-Nagda train will move back from Guna while Sabarmati Express was diverted to the Bina-Bhopal route. Some more evening trains may be affected, he said.
In Odisha, the flood situation in several northern districts, including Balasore, turned grim on Monday, with the swollen rivers inundating low-lying areas, leaving people in at least 134 villages marooned, officials said. Rivers such as Subarnarekha, Budhabalang, Jalaka, and Baitarani in north Odisha are in spate due to heavy rain caused by a deep depression over the Bay of Bengal, and subsequent flood water released from Jharkhand, they said.
As many as 251 villages in the districts of Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, and Bhadrak have been impacted by the north Odisha floods, while the total number of affected population crossed 9.66 lakhs, the officials said. Odisha had already been reeling under the impact of a medium flood in the east with the overflowing Mahanadi river inundating paddy fields and villages.
As many as 6.4 lakh people remain marooned in the twin floods, according to officials. The state government is currently operating 440 relief centers, where above 1.71 people are being fed cooked meals, they said. Authorities in Balasore and Mayurbhanj districts had on Sunday launched a massive evacuation drive to shift people from vulnerable areas to safer locations. The evacuation process continued even as flood water entered the villages.
In the Nirsa area of Jharkhand, the ground collapsed about 20 feet below the railway track made between Thaparnagar railway station and MPL. Along with this, there have been cracks in the ground within a radius of about 50 feet.
