THE MeT department has forecast “extremely heavy rainfall” on Monday at isolated places in Raigad district neighbouring Mumbai and “heavy to very heavy rainfall” at few places in Mumbai city and suburban districts.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday predicted entire Maharashtra would receive widespread rainfall on Monday.

 

An official of the Mumbai regional centre, IMD, said the variation in rainfall would be in intensity.

Districts like Thane and Palghar bordering Mumbai also have similar forecast of “heavy to very heavy rains” at few places on Monday, he said, adding that intensity of rains would come down from Tuesday onwards.

The districts where high intensity showers are predicted on Monday are Pune, Kolhapur, Satara and Nashik, and those with forecast of heavy rains are Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Dhule, Aurangabad, Parbhani, Hingoli, Nanded, Latur, Osmanabad and Jalna.

 

“These districts would receive heavy rains at isolated places,” the IMD stated, adding that rest of week is expected to receive light to moderate rains in most parts of Maharashtra. Heavy rainfall is categorised as more than 64.5 mm rains in 24 hours.

 

The Colaba and Santacruz observatories have recorded 44.2 millimetres and 27.7 mm rainfall, respectively, in the 24-hour period starting on Saturday 8.30 AM.

 

Mumbai and its suburbs, Thane, Palghar and Pune have received rainfall in excess of the normal average between June 1 and July 24.

Seasonal State-level rainfall figures have not been updated as yet, the IMD official informed.

Heavy rains in neighbouring Thane district on Friday and Saturday caused water-logging in many areas.

Suburbs of Mumbai and Navi Mumbai also received heavy showers in this period.

 

Heavy rains over past 4 days fill up major dams in Nashik: HEAVY rains over the past four days in Nashik region had led to water in Gangapur Dam reaching 74 per cent of storage capacity, an official said on Sunday.

The dam has a total capacity of 5,630 million cubic feet (MCFT), he said.

 

He said residents along the banks of Godavari river have been alerted that water from Gangapur Dam could be released any time now into the river.

 

The official informed that Darna Dam in Igatpuri tehsil in the district was now 87 per cent full, forcing the irrigation department to release 16,598 cubic foot per second (cusec) of water in the Darna river.

 

“Bhavali Dam is 100 per cent full and we have had to release 1,218 cusec of water to maintain the level,” he said.

The official said four medium dams, namely Manikpunj, Nagasakya, Punegaon and Tisgaon, are still dry.

“Barring Igatpuri, Trimbakeshwar, Peint, Surgana and Nashik tehsils, the remaining 10 tehsils in the district are facing deficit rainfall so far this monsoon,” he informed.

 

Part of river bridge in Murbad washed way, traffic suspended: A PART of a river bridge linking Murbad to Kalyan in Maharashtra’s Thane district got washed way in the early hours of Sunday due to heavy downpour in the region, an official said.

 

Murbad Tehsildar Amol Kadam told PTI that a part of a bridge on the Ulhas river in Rayta village got washed away and stretches of the road were damaged in heavy rains, in the process affecting traffic on the highway linking Mumbai to Ahmedabad in neighbouring Gujarat.

 

“Traffic on the route has been suspended till further orders. The Ulhas river has been overflowing since the past two days and has caused flooding in Badlapur, Titwala and Kalyan,” he said.

 

Kadam informed that 370 houses have got submerged in the floods, and rescue teams working overnight shifted families to higher places.

On Saturday, over 1,000 people were rescued by NDRF, Army, Navy, Air Force and Railway teams after floods caused by the

Ulhas river breaching its banks led to the marooning of the Mumbai-Kolhapur Mahalaxmi Express in Vangani near Badlapur in the district.