Large stretches in the Western Maharashtra districts of Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara remained under floodwaters putting people on the edge even as multi-agency rescue and relief operations were underway.
Road traffic between Maharashtra and neighbouring Karnataka hd been badly affected because of the flooding in the three districts.
During the last four days, more than 90,000 people have been evacuated from flood-affected areas in the state and shifted to safer locations.
“These floods are a big unexpected tragedy that we are witnessing,” Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said.
“We are making all efforts to contain the flood situation in Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara,” Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said, adding that Army, Navy, Air Force, NDRF, SDRF and other state government agencies are operating round the clock to provide relief to the people.
Of the nearly one-lakh people being rescued in the state, the majority of them are from Western Maharashtra districts of Sangli (42,573), Kolhapur (40,882), Satara (734) along the Western Ghats.
In the last four days, the hill station of Mahabaleshwar has received 1,859 mm rainfall - a record of sorts resulting in increased flow to the catchment of the Koyna Dam area.
The main rivers Krishna in Kolhapur, Krishna and Koyna (Satara) and Krishna (Sangli) are overflowing at several places.
Three Guardian Ministers – Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil (Sangli), Cooperation Minister Balasaheb Patil (Satara) and Minister of State for IT and Home Satej Patil (Kolhapur) are closely monitoring the situation.
Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil is also monitoring the flow of water from the Koyna Dam and is in touch with authorities in Karnataka vis-a-vis Almatti Dam.
The Cooperation Minister visited the landslide-hit areas of Satara district, where several people have died and some are yet to be rescued.
Satej Patil said that though the water level in the district has started receding, it will take 2 to 3 days for the situation to return to normal and the administration was taking every step to ensure the safety of the people.
Patil said that the situation in Kolhapur is better than on Friday and expected to normalise in the next 2-3 days.
“The water level at Rajaram bund on Panchganga river has receded to 55ft today from 56.3 ft yesterday. The discharge of the water from Almatti dam in Karnataka has been substantially increased. This has helped in improvement in the flooding situation. We are taking every step to rescue people stranded due to the flooding in Kolhapur,” he said.
The minister said that responding to the request by him about four days ago, three additional teams of NDRF and one unit of Army had reached Kolhapur for the rescue operation. “Central government has allocated four more teams of NDRF for Kolhapur. This has taken the number of NDRF teams deployed in the district to seven. Three of them landed here in two aircrafts on Saturday. Some of the NDRF deployments will be diverted to Sangli as well. As per our request, one unit of the Army has already been deployed and it has been stationed at Shirol, where the rainfall is expected to affect more,” he said.