Punjab: IIT Ropar students, staff evacuated; sent to safer places

PATIALA: IT was a testing time for IIT Ropar during the worst floods in the Rupnagar district of Punjab during last three decades.
The torrential rain in the hills during the last week severely affected the entire stretch of the district and the devastation is extremely severe. IIT Ropar, which is situated near the bank of river Satluj, was also affected severely.

Though it was unprecedented as the campus was not hit by Satluj water directly but by the rivulets Bhudki and Sangraon tributaries which flow on the south western side of IIT Ropar campus.
The flow was intensified with the heavy downpour in the region resulting in water entering the residential, academics and hostel zones since afternoon of Sunday.

The Bhudki Chau (Rivulet) and rivers were overflowing and through the Kherabad village breached the campus from the northern end and the campus was flooded with huge water.
The water has also entered all the electrical substation inside the campus resulting in the shutting down of power supply to all the buildings as a precautionary step.
During the midnight the IIT Ropar director Prof SK Das in consultation with the deputy commissioner Ropar made arrangements to break the compound wall towards the eastern side of the campus resulting in letting the water drain out of the campus.
Some immediate steps were taken to evacuate the campus, as, institute declared suspension of classes from August 20-25. The students were evacuated and transferred to safer places. All the faculty and staff residing in the main campus quarters were also evacuated and taken to safer places.
IIT Ropar also accommodated 250 local displaced residents of the flood-hit area in the hostels of IIT Ropar on upper floors.
The situation came under control on the intervening night of Monday. Efforts are on to resume the power and water supply in the campus from Tuesday. The rescue was a success as there was no causality or injuries. The flood has caused damages to some of the equipments placed on the ground floor.
Besides district administration the NGOs and local associates held their hands together along with the government agencies to conduct rescue and relief operations.
The ministry of human resources was regularly in touch with the director and has assured every little help in the hour of crisis. Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh also visited the flood-hit IIT Ropar and helped our students to be placed in Chandigarh in Kisan Bhawan.
Expressing gratitude to MHRD and the state government for their support Prof SK Das said, “It was a severe situation but the administration along with the students, faculty members and staff responded very positively to combat the challenges. We provided the necessary supplies to the residents during the crisis hours under very trying circumstances. We took decisions for evacuations of students and staff at appropriate time and provided all assistances not only to evacuate but to transfer them to safer places or connections to their onward journey. The whole operation was successfully completed without any causality/injury or health hazard. We have now taken up the challenge of restoring services and bringing back the campus to operation on war-footing. We are thankful to the administration and the people of Ropar who helped us tremendously in this hour of crisis. This has reaffirmed the bondage between IIT Ropar and the city of Rupnagar and we assure we will keep on working for each other in the days to come.”