Heavy rains pound parts of west Madhya Pradesh, low-lying areas indundated

Heavy rains inundated low-lying areas at several places in Madhya Pradesh, especially some districts in the western parts of the state, where normal life was affected, officials said on Saturday.

Incessant rainfall in some western districts, including Bhopal, Sehore and Indore since Friday, sent small rivers and nullahs into spate, they said.

"Sehore received 316 mm rainfall in 24 hours ending 8.30 am on Saturday, the highest in the state. Indore recorded 263 mm rainfall, while it was 210 mm in Bhopal during the same period," meteorologist S N Sahu of the India Meteorological Department's Bhopal office said. Monsoon is likely to remain active in the western parts for the next two days, he added.

The downpour caused flooding in low-lying areas and some slums in Bhopal, where the authorities opened the sluice gates of Bhadbhada Dam of Upper Lake on Saturday to release water.

"The sluice gates were opened following a rise in water levels. Inflow from streams in the catchment areas is causing the water level to rise in the Upper Lake," Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner K V S Choudary said.

An alert has been sounded in the downstream areas of the dam, he said. Roads in some areas of the state capital got submerged following the downpour. Shahpura Lake in Bhopal started overflowing following incessant rains, the authorities said.

A British-era building in the polytechnic college campus at Nowgaon in Chhattarpur district of Bundelkhand region collapsed due to torrential rains late on Friday night.

An empty bus parked on the premises got damaged after the debris fell on it, police said. However, nobody was injured in the incident. The building was being repaired when it fell, they added.

Three women who had gone to a temple at Tilawad village, around 65 kms from Shajapur district, got stuck there last night after water level around it rose suddenly. They were pulled out to safety using ropes on Saturday morning, local residents said.

Bhopal city has received about 174 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours, Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner K V S Choudary said. There have been complaints of inundation, with water entering houses in some parts of the city, he said.

"Our teams have been working constantly to pump out water and the civic body is in touch with the disaster response forces," he said.

At least four gates of Bhadbhada Dam were opened till 11 am, a public relations officer of the civic body said.

"According to the proposed Bhopal Master Plan 2031, the Upper Lake area at full tank level is 34 sq km. This is the biggest wetland site of central India," said Kamal Rathi, an environmentalist working for the lake's conservation.

The full-tank capacity of Upper Lake is 1666.80 feet. Meanwhile, as many as 100 complaints of water logging were received from different parts of the city, assistant fire officer Sajid Khan said.

"Most of the complaints are from low-lying areas. We also rescued a couple of people trapped in a car. Citizens have also been shifted to safer places from water-logged localities," he said.

An underbridge in Habibganj area, was completely inundated due to heavy rains, it was stated.