BOMBAY, 8 August 2006 — Heavy rains continued to lash Bombay, its suburbs and many other towns of Maharashtra yesterday, affecting road, rail and air traffic. The weather bureau, meanwhile, has predicted intermittent rainfall with possibility of few heavy showers during the day.
Trains on Bombay’s western lines are running 20 to 30 minutes behind schedule while on Harbour and main Central routes, the trains were running 10 to 15 minutes late due to water-logging at Matunga, Dadar and Mahalakshmi stations, railway sources said.
According to traffic police sources, traffic was moving at a slow pace on various routes due to potholes but there was no water-logging on the main routes. Air traffic was also affected with flights operating behind schedule due to poor visibility.
“The delay is only due to poor visibility and there is no water logging in the runways,” airport sources said. Meanwhile, the weather bureau has issued a warning for fishermen, asking them not to venture into the sea.
Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh yesterday visited some of the low-lying areas, which were badly hit during Sunday’s heavy rainfall in the western suburbs, official sources said. Total rainfall during the last 24 hours till 8.30 a.m. on Monday was 191.6 mm at Colaba in southern Bombay and 224.2 mm at Santa Cruz in the suburbs, the weather bureau sources said.
About 40 trees were uprooted since Sunday due to the gusty wind reaching the speed of 60 km/ph, fire brigade sources said.
The army has so far rescued 1,600 flood-affected people in three states, even as the air force has deployed 17 helicopters to assist in the relief work.
The army is conducting relief operations in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Ladakh, a Defense Ministry statement said yesterday.
In Maharashtra, five flood relief columns along with five engineer task forces have been deployed in Nanded, Parbhani, Yavatmal, Washim and Jalna districts. Army has provided food packet and medical aid to the affected people even as army aviation helicopters have been placed on stand-by.
So far, 526 people have been evacuated while 1,300 food packets and 758 medical aid kits have been provided for the area.
In Chhattisgarh, a composite Task Force along with a medical team has been deployed at Dantewada. So far, 1,026 civilians have been evacuated, 1,300 food packets dropped and medical aid provided to over 1,000 civilians. The air force, too, has stepped up its relief and rescue operations in flood-affected Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and some parts of Gujarat.
The air force has deployed two Mi-8 helicopters at Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh and two Mi-8 helicopters at Jagdalpur of Chhattisgarh.
In Maharashtra, one Mi-8, one Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) and two Cheetahs at have been deployed at Nanded, while one ALH, and one Mi-8 are deployed at Nagpur and two Mi-8 are planned to be sent from Pune to Nagpur.
In Gujarat, two Mi-17 were deployed at Surat, two Mi-8 on stand-by at Vadodara, and one ALH was ready to proceed from Hakimpet to Vadodara.
The air force yesterday flew 10 sorties at Bhadrachalam, 20 sorties from Nanded and a similar number in Chhattisgarh. The IAF has so far flown over 110 sorties for flood relief operations, rescuing hundreds of people. The IAF has so far airlifted over 85 tons of relief material, food packets and medicines.
The air force is making efforts to fly as many sorties as possible, despite the inclement weather, to rescue stranded people in the flood-affected states.
