The water level of the Yamuna river in Delhi has stabilised and will start receding tonight, a senior Central Water Commission official said on Thursday.

According to the CWC flood-monitoring portal, the water level at the Old Railway Bridge rose to 208.62 metres at 1 pm and remained stable till 4 pm.

"The water level has stabilised and it will start coming down in the next four hours. It is expected to drop to 208.45 metres by 3 am on Friday," Central Water Commission (CWC) Director Sharad Chandra told PTI.

He said the rate of water flow rate at the Hathnikund barrage in Haryana dropped to 80,000 cusecs at 4 pm.

The raging river has inundated several areas, impacted public and private infrastructure, road and rail traffic and caused immense hardships to people living near the river. The water level at the Old Railway Bridge crossed the 208-metre mark Wednesday night, with the CWC terming it an "extreme situation".

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday urged the Centre to intervene and the city police imposed Section 144 of the CrPC in flood-prone areas to prevent unlawful assembly of four or more people and public movement in groups.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority on Thursday directed that all non-essential government offices, schools and colleges in the city be closed till Sunday. Private establishments across the city have been advised to work from home. There are two major barrages on the Yamuna -- Dakpathar in Dehradun and Hathnikund in Yamunanagar -- upstream of Delhi. There are no dams on the river and, therefore, most of the monsoon rain flow remains unutilised, resulting in floods during the season.

Delhi had recorded a rapid rise in the Yamuna's water level over the past four days. It shot up from 203.14 metres at 11 am on Sunday to 205.4 metres at 5 pm on Monday, breaching the danger mark of 205.33 metres 18 hours earlier than expected.

The river exceeded the evacuation mark of 206 metres Monday night, prompting the relocation of people residing in flood-prone areas to safer locations and the closure of the Old Railway Bridge for road and rail traffic.

The water level breached the previous record of 207.49 metres by 1 pm on Wednesday and the 208-metre mark by 10 pm.

Major floods in Delhi occurred in 1924, 1977, 1978, 1988, 1995, 1998, 2010 and 2013. An analysis of flood data from 1963 to 2010 indicates an increasing trend for floods occurring in September, and a decreasing trend in July, according to research.

The India Meteorological Department has, however, predicted heavy rain in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh over the next few days.

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