Rescue work underway in Kolhapur on Wednesday. (Courtesy: NDRF)THE flood situation in Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara districts of western Maharashtra worsened on Wednesday, forcing authorities to evacuate over 1.5 lakh people. Road connectivity in most parts in the region remained disrupted on Wednesday, affecting the movement of essential services.
Sixteen people have reportedly lost their lives in Satara, Pune, Sangli, Kolhapur and Solapur — the five districts of Pune Division — in the last five days. Water levels have risen in Panchganga and Dudhganga rivers in Kolhapur, Krushna river in Sangli and Krushna and Koyna rivers in Satara following heavy rain.
National Disaster Response Force, Army, Navy and Coast Guard have joined rescue efforts.
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“From Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara districts, over 1.2 lakh people have been shifted to safer places in the last two days. The number of people evacuated in the whole of Pune division is 1.5 lakh. Most dams in the division are filled to capacity and if rain in the catchment areas continues, as predicted by the IMD, the unavoidable discharge of water from dams may again lead to a flood-like situation,” Pune Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar said on Wednesday.
The Sangli-Kolhapur stretch of Mumbai-Bengaluru highway, which connects Pune, Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur in Maharashtra with Nipani and Belgaum in Karnataka, had to be closed on Tuesday due to flooding. The key highway remained inundated between Pune and Kolhapur and between Belgaum and Kolhapur, cutting off Sangli, Kolhapur and Satara.
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“The state transport service in Kolhapur and Sangli remains suspended. Services in Pune are being restored. In Sangli, the main bus stand is inundated. We have urged people not to travel on the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway. Those who have already started their trips should stop at Pune or Satara,” Mhaisekar said.
According to the data received, all 12 talukas in Kolhapur, four of 11 in Satara and four out of 10 in Sangli received excessive rain and were the worst-affected in the region. The flooding also affected power connectivity to 2.5 lakh people in five districts of Pune division as over 10,800 transformer units were submerged.
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While power connections in Pune district were being restored on Wednesday, the situation in Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara remained the same. A crisis of drinking water arose in most parts. Officials said while water tankers were being provided, adequate tests needed to be conducted before restoring supply.
A statement from Army said that as on Wednesday, 16 columns and 12 engineer task forces, comprising almost 1,000 personnel, have been employed in the affected areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka. The NDRF said it has deployed 15 teams in the affected areas of Maharashtra and the Navy said five rescue teams had been mobilised for Kolhapur and Sangli.
