Ponda sees 2 landslides, power cuts, flooding of Curti temple

Ponda: The incessant rain left several areas across Ponda inundated, but the major cause of annoyance for locals was the numerous power cuts that left them without electricity for most of the day. Landslides were reported along two major roads and tree falls at five places on Tuesday.
Ponda central fire station divisional officer Rajendra Haldankar said that the station received seven calls, including for two incidents of landslide, two incidents of tree falls on houses and three incidents of trees crashing on roads.
Trees came down on houses at Borim and Shiroda causing a loss of Rs 20,000 each.
Station fire officer Sushil Morajkar said that there was a landslide at Konem-Priol, but it did not create any hurdles to the traffic flow. However, the landslide near Bethora junction on the Curti-Borim bypass road brought traffic to a halt for around half-an-hour until the mud, two boulders, and fallen trees were cleared.
Several areas across the taluka were inundated. A famous temple at Nagzar-Curti on the outskirts of Ponda town was flooded after water levels in the adjoining stream rose.
Temple committee chairman Ulhas Naik said that this situation is being witnessed on an annual basis now and that devotees perform rituals like abhishek standing in water. Monday being an auspicious day for devotees of Shiva saw the abhishek ritual being performed despite the Shivalinga being partially submerged.
Water level in the Khandepar river also rose. However, it did not affect the pumping station at the Opa Water Works complex as the gates of the barrage had already been opened to let the excess water out, executive engineer of the water division Nivruti Parsekar said.