Pune (Maharashtra): At least three persons, including a Nepali, were killed in Pune city and another three were trapped in their posh villas after a hill slide in Lavasa city in rain-related havoc here, the Pune Disaster Control said.
In the first incident, three mobile snack stall owners were electrocuted when they attempted to shift their handcart to safety from the flood waters near the Z bridge around 3 a.m.
They were rushed to a nearby hospital but succumbed during treatment, and are identified as a Nepali youth Shiva Jidbahadur Pariyar, 18, Akash V. Mane, 21, and Abhishek A. Ghanekar, 25, said the officials.
In the second disaster, a hill slide triggered by heavy rain in Lavasa city in Mulshi buried at least three villas, trapping around three persons this morning. An NDRF team has been rushed to the spot to carry out rescue operations, and the identity of the victims is not yet available.
The state’s cultural, academic and IT capital has been clobbered by torrential rain since Wednesday night leaving a trail of destruction, paralysing normal life as the district administration ordered all educational institutions to remain shut for the day.
Parts of Pune have notched record figures of rainfall in the past 12 hours (since midnight Wednesday-Thursday), officials said. They are: Lavasa (454 mm), Lonavala (323 mm), Nimgiri (233 mm), Malin (181 mm), Chinchwad (175 mm), Talegaon and Khadakwasla (168 mm), Lavale (167 mm), and other areas got between 50 mm-150 mm rain, while the average rainfall for Pune is 115 mm.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar are personally monitoring the rain crises in Pune, besides Raigad, Mumbai, Thane and other parts of the state and all agencies are in full preparedness to handle any eventuality.
Since dawn, the SDRF and NDRF teams along with Pune Police and Pune Fire Brigade have engaged in operations to rescue people stranded in floodwaters in the city areas like Nimbaj Nagar, Deccan Gymkhana and Sinhagad Road, which were among the worst hit as water rushed into homes, shops and other establishments.
Boats were deployed in some areas to ferry the locals marooned in their buildings or rooftops as the city was littered with uprooted trees, branches, two-wheelers and four-wheelers plus other articles owing to the flood waters.
(IANS)
