Over four lakh people have been evacuated to safer places from flood-affected parts of Maharashtra in last five days, including 3.78 lakh from the worst-hit Kolhapur and Sangli districts where water began to recede slowly on Saturday.
A total of 30 persons died in rain-related incidents in five districts of western Maharashtra in the last one week, including 12 who drowned when a boat capsized in Sangli.
According to officials, the situation in western Maharashtra is likely to improve as five lakh cusec of water was being discharged from Almatti dam on the Krishna river in Karnataka. The backwaters of the dam are spread in Maharashtra.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis reviewed the rescue and relief operations in Sangli on Saturday. Addressing a press conference, Fadnavis attributed the flooding to “unprecedented” rainfall this monsoon, which he said was “more than double” of that in 2005 when massive floods had been witnessed.
He added that there is an improvement in the overall situation.
Apart from local administration, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Maharashtra State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Army, Navy, IAF, Coast Guard teams are involved in the rescue and relief operations.
Pune Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar said National Highway 4 (Mumbai- Bengaluru) is still shut and Karnataka-bound vehicles coming from Mumbai are advised to take the Solapur route. He added that priority will be given to launch clean-up drives once floodwaters recede.
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