Yamuna in spate: 3 children drown as flood situation in Delhi worsens

A raging Yamuna showed signs of calming down on Friday but damage to a regulator led to water from the overflowing river reaching the Supreme Court several kilometres from its banks and submerging the busy ITO intersection as well as Mahatma Gandhi's memorial Rajghat.

The water levels receded a bit but failed to stem the floodwaters from reaching the nerve centre of the national capital in central Delhi. The regulator installed near the Indraprastha bus stand and the WHO Building on Drain No 12 was being repaired with sandbags, braces, boulders.

Three boys drowned in a ditch at a metro construction site while taking a bath in floodwaters in northwest Delhi's Mukundpur Chowk area, officials said. The boys — Nikhil (10), Piyush (13) and Ashish (13) — were residents of northeast Delhi’s Jahangirpuri, they said. The fire department said a fire tender was rushed to the spot after information about the incident was received at 2:25 pm.

Delhi Cabinet Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that the regulator was damaged because of the delay in the deployment of the NDRF, even as Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena urged him not to start a blame game.

After breaching a 45-year record three days ago, water levels in the Yamuna here came down to 208.25 metres at 3pm on Friday even as several key areas in Delhi remain inundated.

The water level in the river on Thursday started rising after staying stable for three hours and reached 208.66 metres by 7 pm, three metres above the danger mark of 205.33 metres.

The water level in Yamuna at 4 pm Friday stood at 208.23 metre.

The Indraprastha water regulator was breached due to a strong current in the river and is likely to be repaired within three-four hours, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said earlier in the day during his visit to the site, which was also visited by Saxena.

The flow of water from the river was so strong that it breached the regulator and entered the city. Even though the water level in the Yamuna is receding, the damaged regulator led the excess water in at ITO and nearby areas, Kejriwal told PTI video.

“Labourers and engineers worked overnight to create a mud wall to stop the water. The Army and the NDRF have also joined the operation, so I believe we will be able to stop the water in the next three-four hours,” he said.

The CM said the Rajghat area was flooded due to the backflow of a drain in the area.

Water from a bellowing Yamuna reached the entrance of the Supreme Court in central Delhi on Friday, a few metres away from the iconic India Gate.

Kejriwal said the water treatment plants at Wazirabad and Chandrawal would resume functioning by Saturday morning if the Yamuna water level receded to 207.7 metres.

The Delhi Traffic Police closed all traffic movement in both directions on Vikas Marg, with no vehicles allowed from Laxmi Nagar T-point to A point (ITO) and vice-versa.