Monsoon advances north after 17-day break

New Delhi, June 23 (UNI) The southwest monsoon advanced north for the first time in over two weeks today, knocking the doors of the flood-prone Ganges' catchment in eastern Uttar Pradesh, cheering farmers in more of Central and Western India and raising hopes of an early end to a long dry spell in almost half the country.

Monsoon had hit Kerala six days ahead on May 26, but weakened after a rapidfire ten-day advance along the country's eastern and western coasts.

The Met office had marked its northern limit as an East-West line passing through Raxaul, Daltonganj, Raigarh, Jagdalpur, Hyderabad, Sholapur, Pune, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Porbandar on June 6.

''The northern limit of monsoon ... passes through Porbandar, Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Jalgaon, Parbhani, Ramagundam, Kanker, Ambikapur, Daltonganj and Raxaul,'' the India Metereological Department said today, noting the small but significant northward shift in monsoon activity on a fresh map after over two weeks.

''Southwest monsoon has further advanced into some more parts of Gujarat region, remaining parts of madhya Maharashtra, entire Marathawada and some more parts of Telangana and Chhattisgarh,'' the IMD said.

Conditions were favourable for its further advance over remaining parts of Telengana, some more parts of Chattisgarh and some parts of Vidarbha during the next 48 hrs, the department said.

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