Parts of Amreli and Bhavnagar receive pre-monsoon showers

The Indian Express | 2 months ago | 08-06-2022 | 05:50 am

Parts of Amreli and Bhavnagar districts experienced mild showers even as the state awaits the southwest monsoon after a scorching May. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a forecast of light to moderate rainfall across the state this week.According to the district flood control room, thunderstorms accompanied by gusty winds were reported from Lathi, Amreli Savarkundla and Rajula talukas of Amreli as well as parts of the adjoining Gariyadhar taluka of Bhavnagar district. The control room added that 46 millimetres or around two inches of rainfall was reported from Lathi taluka in eastern part of Amreli district.Rain was reported from Vanda and nearby villages in Savarkundla taluka as well as in Mota Agariya village in coastal Rajula taluka.“However, there are no reports of any rain-related accident,” an officer of the control room said.Jesar and Vallabhipur talukas of Bhavnagar district also received light showers Tuesday evening.Meanwhile, the IMD has predicted light to moderate rain or thundershowers in Saurashtra’s Surendranagar, Rajkot, Botad, Amreli and Bhavnagar districts and north Gujarat region’s Banaskantha and Ahmedabad districts on Wednesday.The rest of the state will continue to experience dry and hot weather, the IMD forecast issued Tuesday said. Generally, the south-west monsoon hits Gujarat coast around mid-June and covers the entire state by the end of June.“As pre-monsoon activity for next 4-5 days, districts of Saurashtra including Amreli, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Surendranagar and southern districts too will receive light rainfall,” said IMD regional director Manorama Mohanty. The normal date of onset of southwest monsoon in Gujarat is June 15. However, the state reported arrival of southwest monsoon in its southern parts of Valsad on June 9 last year, nearly five days earlier.This year, so far, there is no forecast of monsoon onset for at least 3-4 days, said Mohanty.As per the IMD forecast till June 12, “Light thunderstorm with lightning and surface wind 30- 40 kmph (in gust) accompanied with light to moderate rain very likely at isolated places in the districts of North Gujarat region namely Banaskantha and Ahmedabad; in the district of Saurashtra namely Surendranagar, Rajkot, Botad, Amreli and Bhavnagar. Light to moderate rain very likely in the districts of South Gujarat region namely Valsad and Navsari.”This is expected to result in a dip in temperatures. On Tuesday, Ahmedabad recorded the highest maximum temperature of 42 degrees Celsius. Other centres with high temperatures were Gandhinagar at 41.6, Surendranagar 40.7, Deesa 40.6, Vadodara 40.2 and Amreli at 40 degrees Clesius. 

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Probe on after cell phone found with ‘gangster’ lodged in Sabarmati jail

The Indian Express | 2 hours ago | 17-08-2022 | 03:50 am

The Indian Express

2 hours ago | 17-08-2022 | 03:50 am

Police have started an investigation after a cell phone was found in possession of an alleged gangster in the high security zone of Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad.According to the police, an inspection squad was on a surprise midnight inspection on August 13 in the barracks when the accused, Azharuddin Shaikh alias Azhar Kitli, allegedly tried to dispose of the cell phone in a commode. “The inspection team retrieved a Samsung phone from the sewage system of the particular barrack. There was no battery or SIM card with the cellphone,” said Jayanti Prajapati, Jailer, Group 2, Sabarmati Central Jail, in a police complaint. Taking cognisance, an FIR has been lodged against Kitli under IPC 188 for disobedience to order given by a public servant and sections of the Prisoners Act at Ranip police station.An Ahmedabad resident, Kitli, who was arrested in May last year by a team of Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) from Bharuch, has been an accused in over 25 cases of extortion, attempt to murder and Arms Act at different police stations of the city.

Gujarat Assembly polls: Congress announces ‘page commandos’ to take on BJP’s page committees

The Indian Express | 5 hours ago | 17-08-2022 | 12:50 am

The Indian Express

5 hours ago | 17-08-2022 | 12:50 am

Following the footsteps of the BJP, the Gujarat Congress has instructed its workers to form page commandos to prepare voters’ lists, identify the party’s voters and ensure they reach the polling stations. With Assembly elections around the corner, the instruction came at the party’s ‘maru booth maru gaurav’ (my booth, my pride) event in Surat Tuesday. Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot who was to visit Surat and Rajkot on Tuesday to meet Congress leaders for the first time after being appointed senior observer, could not come. The special plane he was flying in, from Jaipur, was reportedly not allowed to land in Surat due to bad weather. He has now rescheduled his visit for Wednesday when he will only go to Vadodara and Ahmedabad. Gehlot will land in Vadodara Wednesday morning and meet Central Gujarat leaders and then head to Ahmedabad to meet north Gujarat leaders and is then expected to address a press conference.“Today, we have come up with matdar yadi (voters’ list) of 35 assembly seats of South Gujarat and handed them over to the district heads. A single page of matdar yadi (voting member list) consists of 30 voters. The page commandos should identify at least 19 Congress voters from the list and take them to polling stations for voting and also see who are left over and repeat it. It is the duty of page commandos to see nobody is left from the voting list. Generally, the average voting turnout of the assembly seat is between 65 to 70 per cent. We have to target those who had not voted and take them to polling stations as they are the voters of the Congress. If the voters’ turnout increases by 20 per cent, then we are sure to win 125 seats in the Gujarat assembly elections,” said state Congress President Jagdish Thakor. He added that in the Udaipur meeting, it was decided to form a new structure of organisation. In the city area, the ward committee will be treated as mandals and the polling booth committee will be treated as sector, while in the rural Talukas, panchayat seats will be treated as mandals and district panchayat seats as sectors.He also alleged that Rajasthan Chief Minister and Congress leader Ashok Gehlot, who was to begin his three-day state visit and attend the event in South Gujarat, was denied landing permission at Surat airport Tuesday citing poor weather conditions. “I am afraid they will not allow us to organise a rally here like they did not allow the landing of Gehlot’s aircraft at the Surat airport today. He has been ready since 9.30 am in the morning to attend the first political meeting in Surat, but his aircraft was denied landing. Today, we have come to know what will happen if an airport is sold or privatised. The decision to give permission for flying and landing of aircraft lies with the airport authority,” he said.Thakor also announced various steps to begin the election campaign in the state from August 20. He urged workers to make elaborate arrangements for the rallies of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. “Around one lakh people should participate in the rally with 25,000 bikes and 10,000 cars,” he said.In a veiled reference to Gujarat BJP President CR Paatil, Thakor further said, “The Surat man is moving around the state and talking about the page committee and page president but it is all false. Their internal party survey says that the party will not cross 70 seats in the elections.”Gujarat, earlier known after leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel and for its cooperative movement, has now become a hub of drugs, said All India Congress Committee (AICC) Secretary BM Sandeep. “In the past four to five months, drugs worth over Rs 40,000 crore were seized from Gujarat ports. Through media reports and sources, we have come to know that drugs worth over Rs 2 lakh crore landed at Gujarat ports and were supplied to different parts of the country.”He added that the party has toured across the 35 assembly seats of South Gujarat. “During the last assembly elections, we (Congress) could not form the government due to the poor performance in South Gujarat. A majority of the area in the region are tribal and they face great problems such as land acquisitions for different development projects like the bullet train, Vedanta project, leopard park, Par-Tapi-Narmada river-linking project, Express highway project, etc,” he said, emphasising the need to organise meetings with the tribal communities in different parts of South Gujarat.Dr. Raghu Sharma, Gujarat Congress incharge, said his party had already discussed the announcements made by AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal in the state. “Kejriwal should go to Rajasthan and see how the health infrastructure is. Insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh is given to the citizens. During the covid pandemic, the work done by the Rajasthan government was excellent and the work was appreciated by PM Narendra Modi,” he said.

Heavy Rains in Parts of North, South Gujarat, Catchment Areas of Narmada Dam

News18 | 6 hours ago | 16-08-2022 | 11:56 pm

News18

6 hours ago | 16-08-2022 | 11:56 pm

Heavy rains lashed parts of north and south Gujarat on Tuesday with the Tapi, Banaskantha and Valsad districts receiving over 100 mm of rainfall in 12 hours since morning, officials said. A downpour in Ahmedabad city in the evening caused waterlogging, slowing down the traffic.Heavy rainfall in the catchment areas of Sardar Sarovar dam in Narmada district caused its level to rise to 134.65 metres around 8 pm, below the full reservoir level of 138.68 metres, officials said.It also received heavy inflow of water from Omkareshwar and Indira Dams in Madhya Pradesh. As of 8 pm, it had received 2.30 lakh cusec water, with 23 gates opened to 2.90 metres to release 4.50 lakh cusec water in riverbed powerhouse and turbines, officials said. More than 30 tehsils received over 50 mm of rainfall during the day, mainly in the districts of Tapi, Banaskantha, Valsad, Chhota Udepur, Navsari, Mehsana, Dang, Aravalli, Surat, Mahisagar and Patan, said a release issued by the State Emergency Operation Center (SEOC).The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast widespread light to moderate rainfall in most parts of Gujarat in the next 24 hours with 'heavy to heavy rainfall' in isolated areas and `extremely heavy' rainfall in some districts of south and north Gujarat regions, Saurashtra and Kutch till Thursday morning.Shamlaji in Aravalli district reported a landslide which affected the traffic on a national highway connecting Gujarat to Rajasthan.Rainfall also caused swelling of rivers in several districts.Read the Latest News and Breaking News here

Mumbai-Pune Expressway : Delayed intelligent traffic system back on track

The Indian Express | 7 hours ago | 16-08-2022 | 10:50 pm

The Indian Express

7 hours ago | 16-08-2022 | 10:50 pm

The death of former MLC and Shiv Sangram Party founder Vinayak Mete in an accident on Sunday brought to the fore the issue of safety of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The 95-kilometre stretch is one of the busiest expressways of the state and handles about 60,000 vehicles per day. Since 2018, it has seen 337 fatal accidents in which 400 people lost their lives.In order to make the expressway safer for commuters, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) decided, back in 2018, to set up an Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) that would reduce accidents and ensure effective management and regulation of traffic, deterring high-speed and dangerous driving. In 2019, the MSRDC floated the tender for selection of a bidder for implementing the ITMS.While the project didn’t move then, it got a fresh lease of life last year. “The tender got delayed due to a few issues, such as Covid and lockdown; however the process was expedited last year. The agency is now finalised and the work order has also been issued. It will take around 9-10 months for installation, and then for the system to go live after all the tests,” said an MSRDC official.The work has been issued to Mumbai based Proc-tech Solutions Private Limited which will install the system and maintain it for the next ten years. The official cited above said the estimated cost of the project is Rs 340 crore and it will be a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.The ITMS will have an average speed detection system at 39 locations, and lane discipline violation detection system at 34 locations. It will also have a weather monitoring system at 11 locations. The stretch will be under complete CCTV surveillance and there will be automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to track the vehicles, along with high-tech mobile surveillance vans equipped with cameras, speed guns, and e-challan machines for penalising and displays.“A Command and Control Center (CCC) will be at Lonavala apart from other centres for live monitoring the situation at the expressway which will enable it to send medical assistance in case of accidents,” an official said.Incidentally, the driver of Vinayak Mete’s car had claimed that they had to wait for over an hour for medical help to arrive after the accident.

Air India launches direct flight between Pune and Ahmedabad

The Indian Express | 10 hours ago | 16-08-2022 | 07:50 pm

The Indian Express

10 hours ago | 16-08-2022 | 07:50 pm

Air India has announced the launch of its direct flight between Ahmedabad and Pune with effect from August 20, 2022. The addition of this new route will cater to the growing demand for air connectivity between the two smart cities and growing commercial and education hubs.Air India flight 0481 will depart from Ahmedabad Airport at 10.45 am and arrive at Pune Airport at 12.10 pm. Flight AI 0482 will depart from Pune Airport at 12.40 pm and arrive at Ahmedabad Airport at 2.15 am. The estimated travel time between the two cities will be 85-95 minutes.Introduction of the new route between Ahmedabad and Pune has been made possible by the restoration of Air India’s aircraft that had been grounded for prolonged periods due to the Covid-19 pandemic and other reasons.“We are excited to launch flight between Ahmedabad and Pune, which are key growth centres in Gujarat and Maharashtra, respectively,” Campbell Wilson, MD and CEO of Air India, said in a press statement.“This new addition is set to improve Air India’s domestic connectivity and empower our customers with more travel options. We look forward to further augmenting our domestic connectivity and introducing new routes over the coming months as more aircraft return to service,” he said.

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