Jalandhar, Sept. 16 -- Once known to be the sitting ducks every time floods hit Punjab, 25 villages in Jalandhar's Lohian block survived Sutlej's fury this year, thanks to the strategic clearing of blockages around the century-old British-era Gidderpindi railway bridge, which tends to trap debris beneath it and cause water backflow, leading to floods in nearby villages.

At 2.1 lakh cusecs on September 3, the Sutlej recorded its highest water flow in four decades. This was much higher than what was seen during the 2023 floods (1.80 lakh cusecs) and 2019 (1.52 lakh cusecs). In 2019 and 2023, as well in 1988, thousands of acres of agricultural land were inundated and hundreds of people displaced when the Sutlej was in spate.

Jalandhar depu...