Delhi: Flood warning issued as Yamuna level nears ‘danger’ mark

The Delhi flood control room issued a warning on Sunday stating that the Yamuna river’s water level could rise to ‘danger level’ at the Old Railway Bridge in the national capital in the next few hours.

At the Old Railway Bridge, the danger level is marked at 205.33m, while the water level at 1pm was 204.09m. A city flood control room official said a warning had been issued for Sunday amid the possibility that the water level would touch the ‘danger’ mark.

A flood alert is declared in Delhi when the discharge rate from the Hathnikund Barrage in Haryana’s Yamuna Nagar crosses the 1 lakh-cusecs mark. As per the forecast, the water level of Old Railway Bridge level will increase to 204.55m around 10pm tonight.

The Delhi flood control room reported a discharge rate of around 22996 cusecs from the Hathnikund Barrage at 12pm on Sunday. One cusec is equivalent to 28.32 litres per second.

Normally, the flow rate at the Hathnikund barrage is 352 cusecs, but the discharge increases after heavy rainfall in the catchment areas. The water discharged from the barrage normally takes two to three days to reach the national capital.

There was no rain in Delhi Sunday morning after three consecutive days of intermittent precipitation, but the weather department has forecast light drizzle during the day.

The weatherman has forecast a partly cloudy sky with the possibility of very light rain and drizzle during the day. The maximum temperature is likely to reach around 29 degrees Celsius.

In the last 24 hours, the Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi’s primary weather station, received 18.6 mm of rainfall while the Palam station recorded 23.7 mm of rainfall.