Rain batters Maharashtra; armed forces to the rescue

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, August 4

Maharashtra government enlisted armed forces in rescue operations as heavy rain battered the state on Sunday, bringing several places to a complete halt.

An Mi-17 helicopter airlifted 35 people stranded at the Ju-Nandkhuri village at Khadavli in Thane district as water levels rose around them. The rescued were brought to Mumbai’s Juhu air field.

Officials said all the major rivers in and around Mumbai and coastal Konkan were in spate. Authorities were forced to release water from overflowing dams.

In Mumbai, Indian Navy and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) sent in inflatable boats to rescue people from low-lying areas.

“We have rescued people from Bandra and Kurla in Mumbai as the Mithi river has breached its banks,” an official from the city police control room said. Officials said some 400 people were moved to safety.

As Ulhas river rose dangerously, residents of Thane, Kalyan and Badlapur were moved to higher ground.

An overflowing Kadakvasla dam caused flood in several parts of Pune after authorities released some of the dam’s water on Sunday morning.  

Authorities evacuated people in Nashik to safer places after Godavari river showed signs of breaching its banks.

Flooded railway tracks affected train services on the Central Railway for the second consecutive day, but it did not have much impact because it was a Sunday.

Resident’s of Mumbai’s western suburban Kandivli made used makeshift plywood rafts to transport essentials like bottled water and biscuits to people stranded in their flooded homes.
The weather department says Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, and Ratnagiri has been seeing heavy rainfall since Friday, causing flood in several places.

Heavy rain also caused minor delay in flight operations, officials said.

District officials have declared a holiday on Monday in several places after the Indian Meteorological Department warned of more heavy rain. Schools will remain closed in Pune, Palghar and Thane districts, officials said.