Heavy Monsoon rain across Agartala and its vicinity flooded all low lying areas of the city along with fresh flood in all areas adjacent to river Howrah since Saturday evening.

The fresh flood at the adjoining areas of river Howrah and other parts of the state after incessant rain during the last 24 hours under the influence of strengthening of Monsoon in Tripura, rendered hundreds people homeless in all low lying areas of river Howrah.

Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha on Sunday afternoon visited flood affected areas, relief camps and reviewed relief activities.

Under the influence deep depression in Bay of Bengal, the heavy rainfall lashed major parts of Tripura, worsening the flood situation in several places, even as the MET department forecast more downpours in the state over the next five days and issued ‘red’, ‘orange’ and  ‘yellow’ warning with heavy rainfall prediction across the state.

As incessant Monsoon rainfall struck Tripura since Wednesday morning and low-lying areas and areas adjacent to many rivers flooded with rain water and disturbed normal life after heavy downpour on Saturday evening in Agartala and its vicinity. The worst flood situation has been reported from West Tripura and Khowai districts.

Chief Minister Dr Saha accompanied by  top officials of the district administration in Agartala visited relief camps and interacted with flood affected people.

He said “Due to continuous rainfall over the past two days, various areas of West Tripura district have been flooded. Around 1,300 families have taken shelter in government shelter houses. The government is keeping a close watch on the flood-affected areas. The district administration has deployed NDRF/SDRF, civil volunteers, and other agencies in various locations. Water has also accumulated in different parts of Agartala, and water pumps have been activated.” He  requested the residents of the flooded areas to follow government instructions and take shelter in safe places.

He said that the flood situation in some AMC areas has improved and normal situation prevails. The state government and AMC are giving all assistance to all flood affected families including food, medicines etc and have also taken all necessary steps to evacuate all affected families.

He also urged all flood affected families to shelter in government relief camps and hoped that the situation would be normal shortly.

While giving details, District Magistrate (DM) of West Tripura district, Dr Vishal Kumar  said that so far 15 relief camps opened in flood affected areas, where more than 6000 families were sheltered. He said that many houses destroyed due to thunderstorms and rain  and the Howrah river are now flowing near danger level.

Dr Kumar added that the Disaster Management teams, SDRF, trained ‘Aapda Mitra’ and Civil Defence Volunteers, NDRF, TSR and Assam Rifles  were pressed into action for rescue and relief operations and restoring the essential services.

Sources said that government agencies have already started evacuating people from flood affected and low-lying areas to the safe shelters and started distribution of relief items.

Sources in the Sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Sadar office said hundreds of families from Chandpur, Trinath, Baldakhal ,Chandrapur, Aralia and Pratapgarh areas of Agartala were forced to take shelter since Saturday evening  due to heavy rainfall and fresh  in river Howrah.

Several families in adjoining areas of river Howrah were evacuated by the administration and volunteers from flooded area of Pratapgarh, Aralia, Jogendranagar, Kathashewla, Chandrapur, Baldakhal areas of the eastern part of the city since Saturday midnight, who were sheltered in relief camps including some makeshift camps.

Administrative authorities including local leaders visited the affected areas and monitored the rescue operations. Rescue operation teams have been camping in the affected areas since Sunday morning and a large number of TSR and NDRF jawans were deployed in the affected areas.

Vehicular movement was also hampered in some portions of National Highway-8 adjoining the river Howrah and normal life was severely affected in different parts of eastern Agartala.

The flood water pumps in inundated areas start immediately to extract flood water in the capital city on Saturday evening, but the ongoing construction of covered drains in large parts of the city caused movement of flood water.

According to the Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC), the state administration and AMC have landed many boats on the city roads to help the people on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, at present (Sunday noon) the water in the Howrah River is flowing above the danger level and all low-lying areas near the river have already submerged into flood water.