Heavy rains pummel Maharashtra, IAF and Army rescue stranded people in Beed; four dead

Mumbai, Sept 15 (PTI) Heavy rains pounded several areas in Maharashtra, including Pune and Mumbai, causing widespread inundation, necessitating the airlifting of 11 villagers by an IAF chopper and the evacuation of 40 others by an Army unit in Beed district on Monday.

Four people have died in rain-related incidents since Sunday in the worst-hit Marathwada region.

"Eleven members of a family were stranded in Sheri Khurd hamlet near Kada village in Ashti taluka (Beed district). They were airlifted on Monday by an Air Force helicopter summoned from Nasik," a senior official told PTI.

The Army unit deployed in Ashti successfully evacuated 40 people with the help of an NDRF team and other agencies.

Heavy rains have soaked five of eight districts in Marathwada, sending several rivers into spate and marooning several areas. Keshegaon circle in Dharashiv district recorded the highest rainfall of 105 mm in the 24 hours ending at 8:30 AM on Monday, officials said.

In Beed district, eight villages in Ashti taluka were cut off from the district headquarters. Heavy rainfall was recorded in 32 revenue circles across Beed, Latur, Dharashiv, Parbhani, and Hingoli districts.

A day earlier, an intense wet spell affected seven villages in Hingoli district. Two women from Gunda village of Vasmat drowned in flowing water and died, the official said.

The administration has announced the closure of schools for classes 1 to 7 in Beed district on Tuesday due to heavy rains and flooding, an official said.

Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde reviewed the situation at the state's disaster management cell.

In Mumbai, heavy rains since midnight inundated low-lying areas on Monday, slowing down traffic during the office rush hour.

In the second such incident in less than a month, a monorail train came to an abrupt halt on the tracks due to a "technical snag" in the morning, following which all 17 passengers onboard were rescued.

The incident occurred at 7:16 am between the Antop Hill Bus Depot and GTBN monorail station in Wadala, officials said.

Commuters of local trains complained of water accumulation on the tracks at Dadar, Kurla, and Bandra stations, delaying the services on Mumbai’s lifeline by 10 to 15 minutes.

Spokespersons of the Western Railway and the Central Railway, however, claimed that services were running normally.

Simultaneously, the stalling of a goods train between Badlapur and Ambernath railway stations due to wheel slip around 12.55 pm compounded the woes of Central Railway commuters.

The downpour at midnight was accompanied by lightning and thunder. On Monday morning, King's Circle, Lalbaug, Worli, Dadar, Parel, Kurla, and other low-lying areas were marooned. The water-filled potholes further worsened the road traffic conditions.

In the last 24 hours, the Colaba observatory in south Mumbai recorded 134.4 mm rainfall, while the Santacruz observatory in the suburbs registered 73.2 mm downpour.

The island city recorded an average rainfall of 111.19 mm, followed by 76.46 mm in the eastern suburbs and 74.15 mm in the western suburbs in the 24-hour period ending at 8 am on Monday, as per civic data.

For the next 24 hours, the IMD has predicted "cloudy sky with heavy to very heavy rain" at isolated places in the city and suburbs amid a possibility of thunder, lightning, and gusty winds at a speed of 30-40 kmph, a civic official said.

Pune city and other parts of the district were pounded by heavy rains from late Sunday night, leading to the evacuation of at least 70 people from a village in the early hours of Monday. There was no report of any casualty, fire brigade officials said.

"After receiving a call about inundation in some areas of Theur village, a team of Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority's fire department and disaster management was dispatched. Heavy rains led to inundation as a drain carrying the water was narrow in some places, causing the spillover.

"As a precaution, we evacuated 60 to 70 persons from some houses and took them to safety," fire officer Vijay Maharaj said.

Several schools in the Hadapsar area declared a holiday on Monday.

The Lohegaon observatory in Pune city recorded 129.2 mm rainfall in the 24-hour period ending at 8.30 am on Monday, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials.

The IMD has also issued an 'orange alert' for Palghar, Pune, Ahilyanagar, and Beed districts, forecasting heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places.

The Marathwada region, including Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, is expected to witness heavy showers on the third consecutive day on Tuesday.

The rainfall is likely to reduce across most parts of the state, including north Maharashtra, Marathwada, and Vidarbha, from Wednesday onwards, the IMD added.

The rains have boosted the water stock in eleven major irrigation projects in the Marathwada region to 94.36 per cent. The water storage stood at 89.32 per cent on the same day last year.

Water is discharged at the rate of 1.51 lakh cusecs from ten irrigation projects, with the highest discharge of 91,854 cusecs underway from the Vishnupuri dam in Nanded, officials added.

Similarly, the water discharge from the Manjara irrigation project in Beed district has been increased to 17,333 cusecs in five hours on Monday. The discharge from the Majalgaon dam on the Sindphana river has been increased from 38,651 cusecs to 71,248 cusecs in four hours. PTI AW KK SPK ND PR GK ARU BNM NSK