NEW DELHI: With Yamuna levels rising to a record high, several key areas in Delhi including the Secretariat housing the chief minister’s office were flooded on Thursday, impairing normal life and traffic movement, as authorities scrambled to lead rescue and relief efforts.
The Yamuna water level touched 208.53 metres at 10 am, breaking a 45-year-old record, officials said.
Areas like Boat Club, Pandav Nagar, some parts of Gandhi Nagar, Bhajanpura were inundated with floodwaters. According to officials, locals in some areas showed reluctance in moving out even as water reached their homes.
The Delhi Secretariat housing offices of CM, Kejriwal, his cabinet and other senior bureaucrats, too was flooded. Two shelter homes in low-lying areas in Old Delhi were waterlogged and the people living there were shifted to a safe location, an official said on Thursday. He said that rain water entered the shelter homes on Wednesday.
“Two shelter homes in low-lying areas have been affected due to rains - one in Gandhi Park and another in Geeta ghat. People living in those shelter homes are being evacuated to a safe location,” a DUSIB official said.
16 NDRF teams deployed
A total of 16 NDRF teams have been deployed in Delhi to tackle the floods caused by the overflowing Yamuna and the situation is expected to improve by Friday morning, a senior NDRF officer said on Thursday. Three teams each have been deployed in east and northeast Delhi, five in southeast Delhi, four in the central region and one in Shahdara area of the national capital, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Deputy Inspector General Mohsen Shahedi told reporters here. A total of six districts in Delhi have been affected by the floods, he said. The NDRF has evacuated about 1,000 people so far.