By Bhagwan Parab
Copyright deccanchronicle
Mumbai: Heavy rains lashed several parts of Maharashtra on Monday with 44 people left stranded across six villages in Beed district due to flooding. Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde directed the district authorities to airlift them to safer places. In Mumbai too, a red alert was issued after heavy rainfall caused severe waterlogging in several parts of the city.Heavy rains caused rivers and streams in Beed to overflow, leaving people stranded in flood-hit villages like Kada, Shobha Nimgaon, Pimpalgaon, Pimparkhed, Dhanora and Dongargaon. Thousands of hectares of standing crops were also damaged due to downpour. DCM Shinde visited the State Emergency Operations Centre in Mumbai to assess the impact of heavy rains across Maharashtra. He directed the airlifting of stranded villagers in Beed with National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) support and asked district administrations to stay on high alert to ensure swift rescue and relief operations. The NDRF team reached Kada village and began assisting stranded residents. A helicopter was also dispatched from Nashik for airlifting, while an Army unit from Ahmednagar was also deployed. The administration in Beed district has announced closure of schools for Classes 1 to 7 on September 16 due to heavy rains and flooding. An orange alert has been issued for Beed and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar districts on September 16. Meanwhile, residents in Mumbai and Pune woke up to intense rainfall and thunderstorms in the early hours of Monday, leading to waterlogging, traffic snarls, and widespread disruption. The downpour, which began around midnight in Mumbai with thunder and lightning, continued into the morning, submerging low-lying neighborhoods including King’s Circle, Lalbaug, Worli, Dadar, Parel, Kurla, and nearby areas of Mumbai. South-Central Mumbai received particularly heavy rainfall between 1:30 am and 4:30 am. The rainfall disrupted railway and road traffic, causing inconvenience to passengers during peak travel hours. According to data from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), various areas in Mumbai recorded significant rainfall. Shivadi saw the highest rainfall at 205 mm, followed by Fort with 204 mm and Grant Road with 200 mm. Other areas in South Mumbai also received substantial rainfall, with Worli recording 199 mm, Dadar 191 mm and Mumbai Central recording 180 mm. For the next 24 hours, the IMD has predicted “cloudy sky with heavy to very heavy rain” at isolated places in Mumbai and suburbs with a possibility of thunder and lightning, besides gusty winds at a speed of 30-40 kmph, a civic official said.
