Varanasi, Aug 3 (IANS): With the Ganga River rising alarmingly in Varanasi, the district administration has banned all boat operations in the river from Tuesday.

The ban order will remain in force till the first week of September.

Varanasi District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said, "Officials are keeping a close watch on the water level of the Ganga since it is increasing continuously since the past one week. As the trend has become alarming now and the current is also increasing, restrictions are being imposed in the interest of public safety. All police stations of the respective areas have been directed to ensure compliance of the order."

Though the trend of rise in water level of Ganga began in mid-July, it adopted an alarming proportion from July 28 when most of the Ghat steps were inundated and the interconnectivity of Ghats was also snapped.

The rising trend of the Ganga continued upstream at Mirzapur and downstream at Ghazipur and Ballia. However, the river was still flowing below the danger mark at all these places.

As per the Central Water Commission's middle Ganga division, water level in the Ganga had reached 66.52-mt mark, although the danger mark is still over 6-mt away at 71.26-mt.

From Sunday morning till Monday 8 a.m., the water level of the Ganga had increased by 2.16-metres.

Besides, the river is also on the rise in neighbouring districts.

In Mirzapur, the river's water level rose up to 72.51-metres and the Ganga was flowing 5.21-metres below the danger mark.

Ghazipur, too, recorded a continuous rise in the water level of the Ganga. Ballia started facing a grave flood threat with water level approaching the danger mark.