About 48,000 people have been evacuated from Nagpur, Bhandara, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli districts in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region where several areas got flooded due to opening of gates of dams following heavy rains in neighbouring parts of Madhya Pradesh, officials said on Monday.
Teams of the Army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) are engaged in relief and rescue operations in these districts.
"Till 3 pm today, 47,971 people have been evacuated from 146 affected villages in the Nagpur division," the divisional commissionerate said in a report.
A total of 90,000 people have been affected in four districts, it said.
While 27,901 people have been evacuated in Nagpur district, 14,813 others were shifted to safer places in Bhandara district.
The number of evacuees stood at 3,159 and 2,098 in Chandrapur and Gadchiroli districts, respectively, it said.
While 57 villages remained affected in Nagpur district, 58 villages were affected in Bhandara. The number of such villages stood at 21 in Chandrapur and 10 in Gadchiroli.
It said nine teams, including personnel of the NDRF, SDRF and Army, are engaged in rescue works in the four districts.
Defence PRO Basantkumar Pande said in Nagpur that two columns of the Army from Kamptee-based Guards Regimental Centre, Engineers Task Force from Pune and a medical ream from the Military Hospital in Kamptee have joined the relief and rescue operations.
Around 80 troops along with three Army boats are deployed in Dhamni, Pavni, Gongpimpri villages in Kuhi Taluka of Nagpur, he said.
A total of 90 stranded persons were evacuated in the day by troops involved in the operations.
"Army columns are now relocating to a village in Brahmapuri area of Chandrapur district, approximately 80 km South-East of the present location," Pande added.
Divisional Commissioner Sanjiv Kumar told PTI on Monday night that the situation was under control now.
"There are no rains in Madhya Pradesh and other places. The water will recede by tonight, and by tomorrow people will start returning to their villages and households," he said.
Earlier in the day, 23 workers staying in a temporary shelter in a village in Gadchiroli district were rescued from rising water in the morning.
District guardian minister Eknath Shinde said the flood-like situation has arisen in some parts of the district.
"Some villages remained cut off (from district headquarter) while some people have been shifted to safer places. I will inspect the situation and visit relief camps. I have already given necessary directions," he told reporters at Nagpur airport before leaving for Gadchiroli in the afternoon.
He said directions have also been given to conduct panchanamas (assessment) of damaged crops immediately.
Responding to a query on the bad condition of roads in the state due to rains, the PWD minister said repairing was underway on a war footing.
Gadchiroli district information office said Desaiganj and Armori talukas are most affected by floods, and rescue operation to shift people to safer places is underway.
"23 workers, who were engaged in barrage construction work in Kotgal village and staying in a temporary shelter, were rescued in a joint operation by various departments with the help of fishermen," the information office said.
12 roads remained cut off from the Gadchiroli district headquarter.