Waterlogging at Padmavati on Satara Road on Sunday evening. Pavan KhengreThis week, Maharashtra will experience heavy rainfall, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) warned on Sunday. The city on Sunday witnessed heavy rainfall along with thunder and lightning post afternoon. In less than two hours, many areas, including Wanaori, Hadapsar, Pashan and Magarpatta, recorded over 60mm. Pune will receive similar moderate intensity spells during the week ahead, the IMD said in its forecast.
As the intense spell of showers lashed the city, Pimpri-Chinchwad and surrounding areas from Sunday afternoon, commuters struggled with traffic snarls while residents battled waterlogging in several low-lying areas in the evening.
According to the information given by the Pune fire brigade control room, the personnel responded to calls about waterlogging from 25 areas, including Chandannagar, Ved Bhavan in Kothrud, near garbage processing centre in Kothrud, Laman Tanda in Pashan, Someshwarwadi in Pashan, Wanawadi, BT Kawade Road and Katraj Udyan. One tempo was damaged when a tree collapsed in Pashan while two incidents of wall collapse were reported from Bavdhan and Warje in which there were no casualties.
Uprooting of 10 trees was reported from Pashan, Salunkhe Vihar, Kondhwa, Chavannagar and Pune Station areas. “Our teams responded to calls about waterlogging and helped people stuck in those areas. They also helped create a passage for the water to recede. Collapsed trees were removed and blocked roads were cleared,” said an officer from the control room.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Rahul Shrirame said, “Heavy spell of rains led to slow-moving traffic at many places. Officers and personnel from all our respective traffic divisions were on the ground responding to the situation and managing the traffic flow. Because of Sunday, the traffic movement was less than usual.”
Four people, who were trapped in their homes due to water logging — three in Gadital and one in Ghorpadi Gain — were moved to safety by Fire brigade personnel. Some two-wheelers were washed away in Alandi and Dighi.
Officials said that traffic bottlenecks were reported from many places due to waterlogged roads and malfunctioning signals. Arterial roads in Katraj, Pashan, Shivajinagar, Kothrud, Camp, Wanawadi, Pune Station area and the central parts of Pune witnessed slow-moving traffic during the peak hour in the evening, officials added.
An ‘orange’ alert for Monday and Tuesday was issued for Pune, Satara, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Kolhapur districts with the Met department warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall (64.5-204.4mm in 24 hours) along ghat areas. These districts will remain on ‘yellow’ alert till Friday.
Whereas Palghar, Thane, Mumbai, Sindhudurg, Dhule, Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Akola, Amravati, Bhandara, Buldhana, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Nagpur, Wardha, Washim and Yavatmal districts are placed in ‘yellow’ alert with likely chances of heavy rainfall (64.4-115.4mm in 24 hours) till September 15.
The enhanced rainfall will be associated with the prevailing depression located over Odisha and its movement in the subsequent days. “The well-marked low-pressure system has intensified into a depression. This system will move west-northwestwards and move across south Odisha and southern Chhattisgarh during the next 24 hours and weaken gradually,” the IMD said in its latest weather forecast.
As the system traverses along central India in the coming days, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat will receive widespread very heavy spells, which will continue till Friday.
Moreover, there is a cyclonic circulation located off the Maharashtra-Goa coast and the monsoon trough is located to the south of its normal position. “All these favourable conditions will keep the monsoon active over Maharashtra, especially the Vidarbha region,” said an official from IMD, Pune.