Incessant rains wash away road diversions, uproot trees, damage houses in Jharkhand

Ranchi/Gumla/Ramgarh: Several road diversions were washed away, trees uprooted, houses damaged and a bridge collapsed due to incessant rain for the past two days in Jharkhand, an official said on Saturday.

However, no casualty was reported from any part of the state till now, a disaster management official said.

The Jharkhand government has already ordered that all schools be closed on Saturday in view of the rains.

NDRF teams had been deployed in Jharkhand's capital Ranchi on Friday to rescue people from low-lying areas hit by incessant rains, he said.

But, the situation is under control there, he said.

The local MeT office has issued an alert for heavy rain in many districts on Saturday.

"Light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places is very likely today and isolated extremely heavy rainfall is also very likely over Northwest Jharkhand," Ranchi Meteorological Centre in-charge Abhishek Anand said.

In Ranchi, several low-lying areas are submerged under rainwater. Around 40 people had been rescued on Friday evening by NDRF personnel from Bandhgari locality under Sadar police station in Ranchi city.

A road diversion was washed away in Ranchi's Mandar area.

Trees were also found uprooted at several places in the capital city on Saturday morning.

Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) issued toll-free numbers for city residents to register their complaints regarding waterlogging.

A portion of a bridge in Jharkhand's Bokaro district collapsed due to heavy rains, an official said.

A portion of around 300 metre bridge constructed at Gomia block in Bokaro district in 2014, which connects Lalpania in Bokaro and Dumri in Giridih district collapsed.

"Around the 20-30 feet length portion of the bridge collapsed. A probe committee has been set up," Bermo sub-divisional officer (SDO) Ashok Kumar said.

In Gumla, at least three road diversions were washed away in heavy rain.

A road diversion near Kandra village connecting Gumla and Lohardaga was washed away, while a road diversion in Chainpur block washed away affecting around 15,000 people of five villages, an official said.

Several houses were also damaged in many low-lying villages of the district.

In Ramgarh, an alert has been sounded in the famous pilgrimage site - Rajrappa temple - by the administration due to the rise in water level in the Damodar and Bhairvi rivers.

Devotees have been asked to avoid going to the exit gate along Damodar river, temple chief priest Ajay Panda said.

Ramgarh deputy commissioner Chandan Kumar has directed officials of all six blocks to keep a close eye on the situation and NDRF has been kept on standby for any situation.

In Dhanbad, several localities such as Grewal Colony near Bekarbandh, Nawadih Nandan Residency in Bhuli, Mangal Vihar Colony in Dhaiyya, Shivliwari Colony in Maithon have been submerged due to heavy rains.

Dhanbad Municipal Commissioner Raviraj Sharma said that Quick Response Teams (QRT) have been pressed in at different locations to clear the waterlogging.

The incessant rains, however, brought down the rain deficiency of the state to 19 per cent.

A deviation of 19 per cent rainfall is considered normal by the IMD.

The state has received 435.7 mm rainfall from June 1 to August 3 against the normal rainfall of 538.7 mm rainfall, according to the rainfall bulletin of the weather department.