There was no let-up in rains in western Maharashtra and the heavy downpour lead to increased discharge from overflowing dams in Pune and the districts in the sugar heartland, throwing communications off-kilter and flooding several parts of Pune, Satara and Sangli.
Continuous discharge from dams in Pune — Khadakswasla (more than 49,000 cusecs), Mulshi (35,000 cusecs) and Pavana (20,000 cusecs) — since morning caused flooding in several low-lying areas and led to traffic police shutting down vital bridges between Pune and the Pimpri-
Chinchwad which in turn resulted in massive traffic snarls.
In wake of the grim traffic situation, Pune District Collector Naval Kishore Ram said the administration has decided to keep schools and educational establishments shut on Tuesday (August 6) as well.
“More than 6,000 persons residing in the low-lying parts have been moved to safer areas by rescue teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Fire Department since Sunday following increase in the discharge of water from the dams,” said Mr. Ram, adding that the evacuated people were moved to shelters in schools set-up by the Pune civic body to cope with the crisis.
While the rain momentarily loosened its grip over Pune city in the morning, it commenced with renewed vigour post-noon with robust showers lashing the city.
Officials at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the grim situation in the State and over the city was likely to persist through the week and likely to improve only after August 9.
“While Pune city is expected to receive moderate showers tomorrow, heavy rain is expected to continue in other parts of the district like Maval, which received 175 mm rainfall till Monday morning,” said Dr. Anupam Kashyapi, Head, Weather & Air Pollution Monitoring Unit, IMD, adding that the city was expected to record at least 40 mm rainfall by Tuesday morning.
The traffic police closed down the bridge linking Aundh with the Sanghvi area after a portion of it was damaged by incessant showers, while the new bridge at Hinjewadi was shut off after cracks developed across the structure, throwing awry traffic along the Pune-Bengaluru highway.
Several employees working with companies in the Hinjewadi IT Park were allowed to leave early or work from home as rising water levels completely cut-off communications between Pune and the areas of Wakad and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
Help at hand: An NDRF team rescuing people from inundated areas of Pune.
Low-lying areas like Wakad, Pimple Saudagar, Aundh Gaon, Baner, Sinhagad Road were particularly affected as water flooded the streets and seeped through basements in residential areas, submerging private vehicles.
Meanwhile, the situation remained grim in the ‘sugar heartland’ with massive discharge of water from the Koyna dam and the surging levels of the Krishna river throwing life and communications awry in Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur.
According to Satara district authorities, the discharge from the Koyna dam, which was completely filled to capacity, had been increased to 1,03,000 cusecs.
With the discharge severing communications between villages and tehsils, and and road traffic coming to a standstill, the administration has urged people to remain indoors.
A similar situation was observed in Kolhapur district, where 17 vital roads were shut down following the extreme flood-like situation.
The roundabouts, streets, arterial roads and other major connectors were submerged with waters from the Koyna dam. State Transport bus services remained inoperational in Sangli and Kolhapur.
People living near the Krishna river were moved to nearby schools and shelters run by the municipal administration.
“Kolhapur and Satara have recorded 101.8 mm and 84.8 mm rainfall respectively till Monday morning. The heavy rainfall is likely to continue for the whole of this week,” Dr. Kashyapi said, adding that Nashik also continued to be in the grip of unrelentingly heavy showers with Tamhini ghat recording 350 mm rain, Trimbakeshwar 396 mm and Nashik city recording 158 mm rain.
He further said that the ghat areas would see heavy to extremely heavy rain in the next 72 hours while the normally arid Vidarbha region could expect heavy showers on August 7.
