The damaged stalls of Canvas 2006 after the incessant rains on Thursday. Pix: Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, Sept. 21: Record rainfall in the last 33 hours brought life to a standstill in the city today.

While a roof collapsed in the police lines at Golmuri, one of the three domes with more than 100 stalls at the Canvas India trade fair at Gopal Maidan collapsed this morning owing to incessant downpour. However, no casualties were reported in either of the incidents.

Alert has been sounded and people staying in the low-lying areas have been advised to shift, following the heavy rains.

Even as the city witnessed the highest rainfall of the season — 234.80 mm — during the last 33 hours (from 8.30 am on Wednesday to 5.30 p.m. on Thursday), more showers are likely in the next 48 hours. “We expect the rain will continue in the city at least for the next 48 hours due to the strong low pressure over the Bay of Bengal,” said weather officials.

The East Singhbhum district administration has asked the people in the low-lying areas, especially those living along the banks of Kharkai and Subernarekha, to evacuate the place at the earliest.

Subdivisional magistrate (Dhalbhum) C. Sikha said the water in both the rivers is flowing at 405m against the danger level of 410 m. “We fear that the water level might cross the danger mark sometime in the wee hours. It will be very difficult to rescue people at that point of time. As a precautionary measure, we’ve asked people staying in the low-lying areas to evacuate,” he said.

Heavy showers played spoilsport at the Canvas India trade fair being held at Gopal Maidan this morning. A major accident was avoided when one of the three domes with more than 100 stalls collapsed at the trade fair. Members of the organising committee of Canvas India said that they have decided to close the fair for the next two days.

“If the rain continues like this there is every possibility of extending the closure as we are not ready to tolerate any loss of property in the form of electronic gadgets and other items on display worth more than Rs 2 lakh, as it happened today,” said sources.

However, organising secretary of the fair Suresh Sonthalia denied that the dome had collapsed.

In other incidents, a portion of the police lines roof at Golmuri and the residence of a constable in Sakchi collapsed in the evening. Fortunately, in both the cases there was no one inside the buildings.

Most of the streets and offices in the city remained deserted due to the incessant downpour throughout the day. Teachers of most schools admitted that there was thin attendance in classes.

The heavy rains also inundated the Jubilee Park and Tata Steel Zoological Park.