By IANS
Ahmedabad : Unrelenting torrential rains continued to affect normal life in many parts of Gujarat Tuesday taking the rain-related death toll to 28 in three days. The army has joined rescue efforts.
Large tracts of Saurashtra and Kutch region and south and central Gujarat remained under water as the administration evacuated thousands of people from low-lying areas.
Jamnagar, Junagarh, Bhavnagar and Amreli in Saurashtra, Vadodara and Bharuch in central Gujarat and Surat and Navsari in south were among the worst hits districts.
Officials said Tuesday that at least 10 people had died in Jamnagar district overnight and four died in neighbouring Junagarh.
This takes the season's toll since last month to at least 70, they said.
The army and paramilitary forces have joined in rescue and relief operations as thousands of people, especially those living on the riverbanks, were shifted to relief camps.
Many rivers in the state were in the spate, washing away tracts of highways, damaging houses and standing crops.
While many major highways remained under heavy rainwater halting road transport, the railway traffic on the busy Ahmedabad-Vadodara-Mumbai route as well as in parts of Saurashtra was also badly affected.
A number of small and medium dams in the state, including the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river, were overflowing, though water at the Ukai dam near Surat was well below the danger level.
Last year, the overflowing Ukai dam had flooded Surat, bringing the city to a halt for three days.