Jaipur, Sep 7 (IANS): Heavy rains have been lashing different parts of Rajasthan since Saturday morning throwing normal life out of gear and forcing Ajmer to announce closure of schools.

Lohariya in Banswara registered the highest rainfall of 169 mm in the last 24 hours in the desert state.

Other parts which received heavy rains are Ajmer, Karauli, Kota, Alwar and Jaipur.

The administration has announced a holiday in Ajmer schools on Saturday due to the heavy rains.

Around 28 mm rainfall has been registered in the last 24 hours here due to which waterlogging has been reported in different parts of the city.

Karauli registered 78 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours. Alwar registered 36 mm while Jaipur registered 5 mm of rain in the city. Kota registered 11.6 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours.

Director of Meteorological Centre Jaipur, Radheshyam Sharma said that a cyclonic circulation has formed over the north-eastern part of Rajasthan and a low-pressure system is seen over the Bay of Bengal.

“Due to the effect of these systems, monsoon is likely to remain active in most parts of eastern Rajasthan for the next few days,” he said.

He said that there was a possibility of heavy to very heavy rain in some parts of Udaipur, Ajmer, Jaipur division on Saturday.

The met department has also issued an ‘Orange alert’ in five districts namely Jaipur, Jaipur rural, Bundi, Dausa and Ajmer.

Also, a ‘Yellow alert’ has been sounded in districts like Bharatpur, Karauli, Baran, Kota and Jhalawad.

Sharma said that the monsoon activities will reduce from September 9 to 10.

Meanwhile, waterlogging was registered in different parts of Rajasthan’s capital. Huge traffic jams were seen on roads in different parts of the city.

Due to heavy rain in the catchment area of Bisalpur, 4 gates of the dam were opened on Friday.

On Friday too, heavy rains lashed many places including Ajmer, Bhilwara, Jaipur, Dausa and Shekhawati districts.

The heavy rain that started at 7 A.M. on Saturday in many areas of the capital continued till around 10 A.M.

Traffic has also been affected in many areas. At the same time, the water of the Dravyavati river has flooded roads in the Maharani Farm area.

Queues of slow moving vehicles were seen on the roads due to waterlogging till the time of filing this report in Jaipur.

It needs to be mentioned here that the state has registered 55 per cent rainfall more than normal.

The state in general receives 395 mm rainfall from June 1 to September 6 however this time it has got 615 mm of rainfall.

Eastern Rajasthan recorded 41 per cent higher rainfall than normal, while western Rajasthan, which also accommodates part of Thar desert, registered 81 per cent higher rainfall.

This season, western Rajasthan registered 462.3mm rainfall against 255.9mm which makes it higher than 81 per cent of normal monsoon, said officials.

Surprisingly, Dausa registered 123 per cent higher rainfall this season by registering 1191.2 mm of rain against the usual 535.1 mm.

Similarly, Jaisalmer registered 160 per cent higher rain this season by recording 417.8 mm of rainfall against the normal 160.4 mm.

Sawai Madhopur registered 98 per cent higher rainfall than normal by recording 1066.7 mm of rain against the usual 539.5 mm.

Tonk also registered 90 per cent higher rainfall than usual.