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Shahjahanpur flooded, traffic slows down on Lucknow-Delhi highway
Garra river rose due to water released from Nepal, which entered Shahjahanpur after Pilibhit; water level currently receding, says relief commissioner GS Naveen Kumar
LUCKNOW Traffic on the Lucknow-Delhi National Highway slowed down on Friday due to inundation of NH-24 via Bareilly, along with several urban areas in Shahjahanpur, in wake of the rising level of Garra river, confirmed UP relief commissioner’s office.
The river rose due to water released from Nepal, which entered Shahjahanpur after Pilibhit, explained relief commissioner GS Naveen Kumar. He said the water level was currently receding, so the situation will normalize soon. He, however, added that the teams of State Disaster Response Force and National Disaster Response Force, PAC and district administration were working to rescue people trapped in submerged areas.
Water entered the Shahjahanpur medical college, after which hundreds of patients were shifted to another hospital. The water also entered least 15-20 residential colonies of the city and many government offices were submerged in water, stated officials.
Garra originates from the Kumaon hills of Uttarakhand, and is a tributary of the Ganga, which flows through major industrial areas of Shahjahanpur. An adjoining district of Shahjahanpur, Pilibhit is located about 48km northeast of Bareilly, on a tributary of the Ramganga River, which is also a tributary of the Ganga.
SP (Shahjahanpur) AK Meena said traffic was moving continuously at a slow pace after the highway was flooded on Friday morning. “Adequate police personnel were deployed to divert traffic and help people,” he added.
A commuter, Madhav Srivastava, who was travelling through the same highway, said the entire route in Shahjahanpur was flooded with around 3 feet water. He said it took a long time to move out of the highway and reach his destination in Bareilly.
Rising rivers in many districts of UP, including Kushinagar, Bijnor, Budaun and Pilibhit, made life difficult for people as villages and localities on the riverbanks remained inundated. He said Nepal was witnessing heavy rains for the last few days, following which all the rivers flowing into India from Nepal were swollen.
Nepal releases water when the water level in the dams of the Himalayan Kingdom starts rising, which results in inundation of UP and Bihar villages, he added.
