Mangaluru : Nethravathi river water level receded  11.6mts at 12am on Saturday to 11.4m in Bantwal and continued to decrease further, the Dakshina Kannada district administration sounded an alert to people residing along the banks of the Gurupur and Phalguni rivers. With these rivers receiving heavy inflow of water and flowing above danger levels at many places, the administration advised people to shift to safer higher reaching areas.

With officials camping in areas prone to potential flash floods on the banks of these rivers, deputy commissioner Sasikanth Senthil S said the administration is geared up to meet any sort of exigency. Families residing on either bank of these rivers should shift to safer areas in wake of more heavy rains anticipated, DC said requesting people to cooperate with the administration and seek assistance on toll free number 1077 if they need help to shift.

The administration incidentally mounted a major rescue operation in Bantwal late on Friday and early hours of Saturday with Nethravathi swelling to 11.6metres. More than 200 people were shifted to safe places with personnel from Indian Coast Guard, fire and emergency services and local rescue apparatus working overtime. Among those rescued was former KPCC president B Janardhan Poojary, who resides at Bastipadpu in Bantwal.

The Nethravathi river was flowing at 9.5m at Thumbe, forcing Mangaluru City Corporation authorities to stop pumping of water temporarily. Senthil said this may result in temporary break in water supply to the city that receives water from the pumping station at Thumbe through the twin18-MGD lines, adding pumping of water will resume once the water level at the vented dam recedes. MCC normally stores water up to 6metre at the dam.

After the flash floods, administration rescued around 300 people with help of locals in Belthangady. Connectivity to couple of places has been snapped, he said, adding good sign was that water had receded. In Uppinangady, the Nethravathi and the Kumaradhara that saw a historic confluence late on Friday too showed signs of receding and stood at 31.8 metres. Water levels started receding at Subrahmanya and Dharamsthala too.

In a related development, Senthil who instructed district officials not to leave the district HQ for next three-days, instructed them to keep a vigil in their designated flood prone areas and provide aid to people who have been shifted to 43 ‘ganji kendras’ set up across the district. Separate accommodation should be set up for men and women in the relief centres, he said. The administration also set up a relief material collection centre at KPT.