The flood situation in Midnapore district in West Bengal turned worse on Thursday with fresh areas inundated by the Subarnarekha River, leaving nearly three lakh people marooned.
Besides Narayangarh, Sabang and Pingla blocks, which were flooded on Wednesday, over 150 villages in Dantan blocks I and II, about 60 km from Kharagpur, went under water last evening, District Magistrate N S Nigam said.
The gushing waters of the river have submerged a 6 km stretch from Sastalagar to Sonakhalaia on the Orissa border on Kharagpur-Chennai NH 60, cutting off West Bengal from the southern part of the country. Thousands of trucks are stranded on the highway.
The army, pressed into rescue and relief operations in the district and in neighbouring East Midnapore since Wednesday, have begun work at Dantan since morning, he said.
"We have asked for an Air Force helicopter from Kalaikunda and we will begin airdropping food later in the day at Dantan when we get it," he said.
Four persons have died and over 12 were missing in the floods, while over 10,000 people were rescued from Narayangarh, Pingla and Sabang by the Army and civil defence forces on Wednesday, he said.
The rains, lashing the area since Sunday, stopped today morning. It has rained a record 700 mm till Wednesday against an annual rainfall of 1600 mm. The situation has been compounded by the discharge of 3.5 lakh cusec water from the Chandil-Galudih reservoir in adjoining Jharkhand.