Police personnel patrol at the swollen Yamuna River in the backdrop of the Taj Mahal in Agra, Saturday, July 31
The water level in the Yamuna continued to recede as it went below the danger mark of 205.33 on Saturday, a day after the Delhi administration sounded a flood alert and expedited efforts to evacuate the floodplains.
The water level was recorded at 204.92 metres at Old Railway Bridge at 6 pm. It went up to 205.59 metres at 9 pm on Friday and came down to 205.01 metres at 8 am on Saturday morning.
On Friday, with Haryana discharging more water into the river from the Hathnikund Barrage, the Delhi Police and the East Delhi district administration started evacuating the floodplains of the Yamuna in the capital.
The Irrigation and Flood Control Department deployed 13 boats in different areas and put 21 others on standby to move the people.
A flood alert is declared when the Yamuna crosses the "warning mark" of 204.50 metres. The situation is being monitored round-the-clock, a district administration official said.
According to the Delhi flood control room, the discharge rate at the Hathnikund Barrage peaked to 1.60 lakh cusecs Tuesday afternoon, the highest this year so far. The water discharged from the barrage normally takes two to three days to reach the capital.
Haryana had been releasing water from the Yumananagar-located barrage at the rate of 37,109 cusecs at 8 pm on Friday, it increased to 45,180 at 1 am on Saturday, which resulted in the water level reaching 205.44. At 4 pm on Saturday, the water was released at the rate of 29,172 cusecs.
Normally, the flow rate at the Hathnikund barrage is 352 cusecs, but the discharge is increased after heavy rainfall in catchment areas.
One cusec is equivalent to 28.32 litres per second.
In 2019, the flow rate had peaked to 8.28 lakh cusecs on August 18-19, and the water level of the Yamuna had hit the 206.60 metre-mark, breaching the danger mark of 205.33 metres.
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