Maharashtra Rains: Traffic on Mumbai-Bengaluru highway disrupted; Karnataka-bound vehicles stopped in Kolhapur

The track on the Mumbai-Pune ghat section was covered in mud

The Western Naval Command, Mumbai has mobilised flood rescue teams and helicopters to provide assistance to the state for rescuing those marooned in flood-hit areas of Raigad and Ratnagiri, defence officials said here on Friday.

Following a request by Maharashtra Government, seven naval rescue teams reached Raigad and Ratnagiri districts by road.

En route they encountered adverse weather conditions and widespread inundation in affected areas and are being deployed as per directions of the civil administration.

The navy is also taking up the airlift of marooned people from Poland in Raigad for which a Seaking 42C helicopter departed from the INS Shikra early today.

The naval Flood Rescue Teams are fully self-sustained and equipped with Gemini rubber boats, loud hailers, first aid kits, life jackets and life buoys, manned by specialist Naval Divers and diving equipment.

Additional Flood Rescue Teams are being maintained on a high degree of readiness at Mumbai, for immediate deployment, should the need arise, said a navy spokesperson.

At least nine persons were killed as unprecedented torrential rains pounded the coastal and western Maharashtra for the past 36 hours.

Several towns and villages in Raigad, Ratnagiri have been flooded, marooning thousands and over two dozen villages were completely cut off from the rest of the state.

Meanwhile, traffic on the Mumbai-Bengaluru national highway got disrupted on Friday after a stretch of road in Belgaum district of Karnataka got inundated, prompting the police in Maharashtra's Kolhapur to stop the vehicles going to the neighbouring state as a safety measure, officials said.

Rains continued to lash parts of Kolhapur, due to which the Panchganga river in the district is flowing above the danger mark, they said.

Talking about the traffic situation on the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway, Kolhapur's district superintendent of police Shailesh Balkawde said, "Ahead of Kagal (in Kolhapur), a stretch of road near a village in Belgaum district of Karnataka has got inundated due to rainwater on Friday. Therefore, we have stopped the flow of traffic going towards the neighbouring state from the Kolhapur side."

An official from the Kolhapur district disaster management cell said the water level of the Panchganga river continues to rise. "Till 9 am on Friday, the water level of the river at the Rajaram weir reached 48.1 feet. It is well above the danger mark of 43 feet," he said.

A total of 114 bunds have gone under water, he added.

Officials of the district administration had said on Thursday said that as many as 47 villages in Kolhapur were cut off after roads leading to them were submerged in water due to heavy rains and 965 families were shifted to safer places. They had also said that two persons, including a woman, were also swept away at different places in the district during the downpour.

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