Fresh flood alert in Pune

A fresh flood alert was issued Tuesday night for the low-lying areas of Pune city even as around 1,000 people were shifted to safer places in nearby Kolhapur district.

"A fresh flood alert was issued for the low-lying areas of Pune city after the discharge from Khadakwasla Dam increased upto 45,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second)," Pune Deputy Collector Suhas Divse said.

Following increased discharge from the dam and heavy rainfall Tuesday, many areas in Pune were once again inundated, forcing the people to move out of their homes from localities such as Pulachiwadi, Patil Estate etc.

District authorities in Kolhapur said that the people were shifted as a precautionary measure.

"Not much rains have occurred in Kolhapur in the past 12 hours yet as a precautionary measure we shifted some 1,000 people from different places in the district," Deputy Collector Milind Pathak said.

He said that Shirul and Hathkangla were the two worst-hit talukas of the district following floods in Krishna river, adding that Panchganga river at Rajaram Bhandara in Kolhapur city was below danger mark.

Earlier, the district administration had shifted some 11,000 people because of floods, according to District Collector Praveen Darade.

Meanwhile, 12 persons have lost their lives since Saturday due to floods in western Maharashtra, Pathak said.

Three persons have lost their lives in Kolhapur district while four deaths each had occurred in Sangli and Satara. One person was washed away in the flood waters in Baramati taluka of Pune district.

There is not much change in the situation in Sangli where a flooded Krishna river has led to evacuation of 77,306 people from the talukas of Miraj, Valva and Palush.

In Solapur, the pilgrimage town of Pandarpur and Malshiras taluka were still flooded. However, no fresh evacuation has been done, District Collector Govind Raj said.

As many as 3,500 people had to be shifted to safer places from four flood-hit talukas of the district so far, Raj said, adding that there were no casualties reported so far in the rains.

In spite of continued rainfall on Tuesday, many people returned to their homes from relief camps in the flood-affected district of Satara, according to official sources.

Since the Krishna and Koyna rivers started flooding, the district administration had translocated to safer places a total of 511 persons from the talukas of Karad, Patan, Satara and Wai, they said adding that now only a 100 people remain in the relief camps at Karad, they said.

Meanwhile, the inflow and outflow at Koyna Dam in Satara district has been matched at 61,300 cusecs (cubic feet per second), Executive Engineer U V Siddhamal said.

He said as against the dam's total storage capacity of 2158.6 feet, the water at present in the reservoir was 2154.1 feet.