Guwahati: Death toll due to flood and landslides in Assam mounted to 21 on Tuesday even as situation continued to remain grim in parts of Guwahati city and the worst affected Goalpara district.
Two more persons died due to landslides in two localities –Kahilipara and Lalmati – in Guwahati city on Tuesday taking the toll to five while at least eight deaths due to flood were reported from various parts of Goalpara district alone.
The rest of the deaths were reported from other parts of the state including Kamrup district.
The road communication between Guwahati and Goalpara along the National Highway 37 (old) has been totally disrupted as flood water has submerged the highway at various points besides causing extensive damage to several bridges in Goalpara district.
Eleven NDRF teams comprising over 550 personnel have been deployed for carrying out relief and rescue operations in the flood-affected areas of Assam. “We have deployed eleven teams in the state while two each are being airlifted from Patna and Odisha today (Tuesday). That makes a total of 15 of our teams for relief and rescue duties in Assam,” National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) chief O P Singh told PTI here.
He said that the teams are carrying boats and other equipment. Each NDRF team has a strength of over 50 personnel.
Army has been deployed to rescue marooned people in Guwahati city and Goalpara district in addition to the NDRF and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel.
Thousands of residents in worst affected Anil Nagar, Tarun Nagar, Lachit Nagar, Rajgarh bye-lanes, R G Baruah road, Dhirenpara areas in Guwahati city have remained stranded for about 48 hours . The city recorded 162.56 mm of rainfall since Monday night.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi held an emergency meeting with senior officials during the day to take stock of the flood situation in some parts of the state and directed the concerned authorities to take all-out measures to deal with the situation, CMO officials said.
The chief minister, who is monitoring the situation, had already directed the State Disaster Management Authority to press into service SDRF personnel to evacuate the marooned people.
It was also decided in the meeting that SDRF personnel must be stationed permanently in the flood prone areas and two additional SDRF companies would be raised. NDRF and SDRF personnel are already operating in Goalpara, Dudhnoi and other places to evacuate the marooned people.
SDRF personnel from Sonitpur and North Lakhimpur have also moved to affected areas.
In the flood prone areas of upper Assam, the water level in the river was below the danger level in most of the places and there are no reports of any breach in embankments maintained by water resources department.
The rescue operations and relief distribution operation in the city have been hamstrung due to lack of sufficient number of motor boats.
Deputy Commissioner Dr M Angamuthu informed that authorities were trying to arrange for some country boats also expedite the operation even as marooned people complained of lack of supply of drinking water and food items by the authority so far in many of the affected localities.
The situation was the worst in Goalpara district in western Assam where at least eight people have died and about one lakh people have been affected due to flood triggered by heavy rains in the state said an official.
The situation in Dhubri district, bordering Bangladesh, was also grim with water level of Brahmaputra River showing a rising trend. One child was killed and three others were injured in landslides at Hatisinghmari area of the district, an official said.
Meanwhile, Kamrup (Metro) district administration on Tuesday announced that all educational institutions in and around Guwahati will remain closed for the third consecutive day on Wednesday as several areas remained under water.
The district administration in a release declared that all government and private schools and colleges will be closed on Wednesday due to flooding of various areas in the city.
Most schools and colleges have examinations scheduled during the week and they have been directed to fix a new schedule for the same, the release added.
The district administration was coordinating with the NDRF and SDRF to ensure rescue and adequate arrangements have been made to provide relief to the affected people.
All the senior officials and magistrates of the district administration are constantly reviewing the situation of all inundated and vulnerable places, the release added.
The district authorities have also set up six additional helplines– 94351-09477; 94350-13926; 94350-14676; 9613859680; 94351-83744 and 94350-61886. (With inputs from PTI)
