Rain hits rail traffic in Gujarat; 50K evacuated.

Six people have died across the state so far in rain related incidents, authorities said. While two people drowned in Bharuch, two others died in Gadvel village of Kheda district. A girl was seriously injured in Kheda after the house she was living in collapsed due to heavy rains.

Rail and road traffic too has been hit. Railway officials said 18 trains were cancelled and three others rescheduled. The routes of 18 other trains were diverted.

"Around 16,000 people were shifted to safer places from Bharuch city and other parts of the district. The water level of Narmada river on Golden bridge is receding but the rain has been unrelenting," Bharuch Collector Avantika Singh said.

Surat Collector J Shivhare said that more than 15,000 people, who were moved to safer places due to rise in the water level of Tapi river, were provided food packets and other basic facilities.

Shivhare said that educational institutions would remain shut on Thursday as water entered low-lying areas of Surat.

Meanwhile, rescue operations are on in Vadodara's worst-affected villages of Karjan, Padra and Vadodara (rural), while people have been shifted to safer places using boats, Vadodara Collector Vinod Rao said.

"Teams of NDRF, fire brigade and district administration are engaged in this operation," Mr Rao said, adding that over 25,000 people from the 114 affected villages of Vadodara and Chhotaudepur districts were shifted to safer places after heavy rains hit the two districts in the past 24 hours.

There were reports of water-logging in many areas of Vadodara

on Wednesday as water level of the Vishwamitri river hovered at 28.6 feet, two feet above danger level.

Deputy Municipal Commissioner of Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) C M Makwana said that about 3,900 people were shifted to safer places from low-lying areas.

He said it would take about six hours for the water level to go down at bridges across the Vishwamitri river, which runs through the city.

In the Saurashtra region, moderate to heavy downpour during the last 24 hours affected normal life and hit road traffic to Mumbai badly.

Visavadar town in Junagadh district recorded over 200 mm rainfall during the last 24 hours, followed by Rajkot, which recorded 125 mm, while Amreli and Bhavnagar recorded 100 mm and 78 mm respectively, Meteorological department sources said

on Wednesday.

Attendance of students was thin in schools and colleges in Rajkot.

There was, however, no report of any rain-related casualty in the region during the last 24 hours, police said.

Ahmedabad also witnessed heavy rains which led to many low-lying areas being water-logged. The city received 100 mm of rains on Tuesday

night.

Eight National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have been deployed for relief and rescue operations in different parts of the state, with three teams in Bharuch, two in Vadodara, two in Surat and one in Navsari.

The Met department has predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall in North Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch during the next 36 hours, while South Gujarat region is expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall during the next 12 hours.