10 dead in rain fury in arid Marathwada; heavy showers in Mumbai

Ten people were killed in heavy rains and floods in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, while one person died on Tuesday after a bus got swept away in Yavatmal even as more than two dozen stranded people were rescued in Latur district, officials said.

Besides, more than 200 cattle perished and a number of houses were damaged in torrential rains that lashed Marathwada on Sunday and Monday, causing havoc in a region which is considered a perennially drought-plagued area, they said.

One person died and three others were missing after a state transport bus got swept away while crossing an inundated bridge in Yavatmal district on Tuesday morning, the officials said.

The incident took place around 8 am at Dahagaon bridge in Umarkhed tehsil when the semi-luxury bus of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) was going from Nagpur to Nanded.

The bus got swept away for about 50 metres while passing through the bridge, which was flooded following heavy rains in the area, and then overturned, an official said.

Heavy rainfall in catchment areas of the Manjara dam forced authorities to open all 18 gates of the reservoir to discharge water on Tuesday, which led to flooding in some villages in Beed district while an alert was sounded in some neighbouring districts, the officials said.

The local administration opened all 18 gates of the Manjara dam and 11 gates of the Majalgaon dam, resulting in discharge of 78,397 cusec 80,534 cusec water from them, respectively, they said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned of heavy rains in parts of the state over the next two days as well.

The region in central Maharashtra which faced rain fury comprises eight districts - Aurangabad, Latur, Osmanabad, Parbhani, Nanded, Beed, Jalna and Hingoli.

Excessive rainfall (over 65 mm) was recorded in over 180 circles falling under these eight districts, a release issued by the divisional commissioner's office said.

The heavy showers forced authorities to open the gates of various dams for water discharge, which led to flooding in villages located on the banks of the Manjara river in Beed and Latur districts.

In the last 48 hours, 10 deaths due to heavy rains and floods were reported from six districts of the region - three in Beed, two each in Osmanabad and Parbhani, and one each in Jalna, Nanded and Latur, the release said without providing details of how they died.

More than 200 farm animals, including large milch animals, also perished in the heavy rains over the last two days.

"Beed district alone reported the death of 54 major milch animals and 135 small ones. At the (Aurangabad) division level, the figures were 60 and 143 respectively," an official from the relief and rehabilitation department told PTI in Mumbai.

Besides, 28 houses, including 25 kutcha (thatched) ones, were partially or fully damaged. Among the damaged houses, 11 were located in Aurangabad, 12 in Beed and five in Jalna, an official said.

The heavy rain and flood have damaged crops on several acres of agricultural land in the region, the officials said.

''Since yesterday, the Water Resources Department has been monitoring the situation closely. We are trying to minimise the damage,'' Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil told reporters in Beed.

The administration will provide all possible relief to people, he said.

An NDRF team, a helicopter and boats were deployed on Tuesday to rescue people stranded in barrages, villages and on the banks of a river in Latur district lashed by heavy rains through the day.

While 25 out of 40 people stranded on the banks of Manjara river at Sarsa village have been rescued using boats, efforts were on to get the rest 15 to safety, an official said.

He added that three people stranded on a river basin in Digol Deshmukh area in Renapur tehsil have been also rescued.

Three employees of the state Irrigation Department were stuck in the Ghansargaon village barrage, and a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team as well as a helicopter have been brought in help local personnel with the rescue effort, said District Disaster Management Officer Sakeb Usmani.

Officials said six out 10 tehsils and 30 out of 60 revenue mandals in Latur have received heavy rains, leading to flooding of streams and rivulets, resulting in authorities having to release 70,845.30 cusecs (cubic foot per second) of water into Manjara river after opening 18 gates of a dam in Dhanegaon in Keh tehsil.

Latur district has received 66.09 millimetres of rainfall in the last 24 hours, with the downpour being particularly severe, along with thunderstorms, in Latur, Udgir, Ahmedpur, Chakur, Jalkoat and Ausa tehsils, leaving many villages disconnected, officials said.

Several of these revenue mandals have received over 65 mm of rainfall during this period, they said, adding that total rainfall in Latur district this monsoon has now touched 906 mm, which is almost 109 per cent of the annual average.

Heavy rains lashed Mumbai and suburbs on Tuesday, but no major water-logging is reported so far and public transport services, including suburban trains, also remained unaffected, officials said.

A civic official said no incident of a major water-logging was reported despite heavy showers in Mumbai. Public transport services are also running normally, he added.

''It's raining heavily in suburban and ghat sections. But, local and long-distance trains are running as per time table,'' Shivaji Sutar, chief public relations officer, Central Railway said.

The IMD has issued a ''yellow alert'' for Mumbai indicating ''thunderstorm accompanied with lightning, gusty winds, and heavy rainfall at isolated places'' for Wednesday. The district administration in North Maharashtra's Nashik district has sounded an alert as the level of the Godavari river rose on Tuesday after water was released from the Gangapur Dam.

Nashik city and other parts of the district were pounded by rains since early hours of Tuesday.

The rains finally took a break in the afternoon. Nashik city received 15.9 mm of rainfall from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, an official release said.

Meanwhile, the IMD on Tuesday issued a yellow warning for eight districts of Maharashtra's Vidarbha, predicting thunderstorm with lightning and light to moderate rainfall for the day, an official said.

The IMD's regional centre has warned that thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds (30-40 kmph) and light to moderate rainfall are very likely to continue at a few places in Washim and at isolated places in Akola, Amravati, Buldhana, Chandrapur, Nagpur and Wardha districts.

Thunderstorms with lightning and light rain are very likely to occur at isolated places in Bhandara and Gondia districts, the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)