Heavy rain disrupt normal life in Rajasthan; road, rain traffic disrupted

Jaipur, Sep 3 (PTI) Rail and road traffic were disrupted as heavy rains lashed several parts of Rajasthan on Wednesday, leaving many areas in Jaipur and Kota districts waterlogged.

Nine trains were halted on the Kota-Mumbai route following landslips near the Dara railway station, a spokesperson of the Kota railway division said.

Waterlogging in the Dara stream forced the suspension of traffic on National Highway-52 that connects Kota and Jhalawar.

The morning downpour also disrupted normal life in Jaipur, Dausa and Sikar. In Dausa, a police van rammed into a truck on the Jaipur-Agra highway amid heavy rains, leaving two personnel injured.

Severe waterlogging on Jaipur city roads and low-lying areas disrupted traffic, and normal life was upended as Tonk Road, Walled city areas, Jawahar Nagar, Raja Park, Moti Dungari Road, Gopalpura, Tonk Phatak, and Ajmer Road got submerged under four to five feet of water. The Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital was inundated, inconveniencing patients and their family members. Water also seeped inside the Kala Hanuman Ji temple.

Power outages due to the downpour were reported from several areas.

Jaipur Meteorological Centre Director Radheshyam Sharma said the monsoon trough currently extends from Bikaner and Jaipur in Rajasthan through Madhya Pradesh's Datia and Sidhi, to Odisha's Puri and into the Bay of Bengal.

Another trough is passing through Punjab, Haryana and northeast Rajasthan, he said, adding a low-pressure system persisting over the Bay of Bengal since Tuesday is likely to keep rains active in the state till September 7.

The weather office has issued an orange alert for very heavy rainfall in Banswara and Pratapgarh districts on Wednesday, and a yellow alert for heavy rain for Alwar, Baran, Bundi, Bharatpur and nearly a dozen other districts.

Rain activity is also likely to increase in Jodhpur and Bikaner divisions between September 5 and 7, according to the weather department. PTI AG SDA NSD NSD