PUNE: Heavy rains and thunderstorms continued to lash the Maharashtra state with railway services badly hit on the Konkan and Central Railway route, and water-logging at several places.
However, Mumbai and Thane were spared from heavy rainfall, while other places in the state reported showers with thunderstorms.
A man and his daughter are reported to have died after she slipped and fell into a waterfall in Khandala. The father, who went to rescue the daughter, was swept away by the heavy water current and was drowned. Another man was washed away in Nashik, while three others were drowned in Kolhapur.
More than 400 families living in low-lying areas along the riverbank in Pune were shifted to safer places as precautionary measures.
Air traffic in Mumbai was unaffected. The Meteorological Department officials have forecast heavy rains in the city and surrounding areas over the next 48 hours. The heavy downpour has also thrown the intercity rail traffic out of gear, with several Pune-Mumbai trains being canceled till tomorrow. Long distance trains to south India that passed through Pune were diverted via Kalyan-Manmad-Daund section.
The Konkan region received very heavy rains, with the Konkan Railway services going off kilter. On Sunday morning, a landslide was reported on the rail route, further delaying train service.
Water logging has caused the most damage to road traffic especially in Rajapur, Khed, Mahad and Chiplun areas. Some villages in these places and also on the fringe areas of Kolhapur were totally cut off with communication lines going dead.
The Meteorological Department officials have forecast heavy rains in the city and surrounding areas over the next 48 hours, with heavy to very heavy rains at isolated places in Goa, Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg and hilly terrain areas. Heavy rains are also likely to occur at isolated places in central and western Maharashtra and in the districts of greater Mumbai, Nanded, Latur, Parbhani during the same period excluding up to Vidarbha.
Meanwhile, at least 15 more people were killed overnight in heavy monsoon rains which have wrecked homes and destroyed farmland in another southern state, taking the death toll over the past two days to 61, officials said in Hyderabad yesterday.
The rains triggered flooding in major cities and towns and destroyed 150,000 hectares of mostly paddy crops across southern Andhra Pradesh state alone, officials said. "A failure of the rice crop in the state would certainly be a cause for concern, it is a large producer and a large consumer," said R.S. Seshadri, a director of rice lands in the area.
- With input from agencies
