Heavy rains throw life out of gear in city
| Date :03-Jul-2019 |
Swimming they say is all about good times, and perhaps rain god took pity on us Nagpurians and helped convert the vast open space of Reshimbagh ground into a big open free-to-use pool. Incessant rains during last two days that pounded the city led to accumulation of rain water in many areas. (Pic by Satish Raut)
Staff Reporter:
Balcony wall collapses in Ajni Rly Colony
Debris of the balcony that crashed at Ajni Railway Colony on Tuesday.
Parapet wall of a balcony at one of the multi-storeyed building in Ajni Railway Colony collapsed in aftermath of incessant rainfall in city since night. The incident came to light on Tuesday morning sending shivers down the spine of occupants railway employees who had a lucky escape. None of the occupants of the G+2 structure had any inkling of the close shave they had during night till morning when they stumbled upon fallen debris that was blocking the door of ground floor flat. It was a Type-II quarter having G+2 structure and employees union have alleged negligence on part of Engineering Department due to which maintenance of the said building was never done.
A rear view of a multi-storeyed building in Ajni Railway Colony showcasing lack of
maintenance on part of Engineering Department.
Therefore the tragedy was in offing, the union officers bearers further claimed after visiting the Ajni railway colony. The entire wall crashed into ground damaging the bi-cycles parked in the compound. Inspite of dangerous condition of the said building, railway officials have not taken steps to ensure that it is vacated. The engineering officials only inspected the building and directions were issued to field unit to remain alert. Said, Virendra Singh, Divisional President, Central Railway Mazdoor Sangh (CRMS), the incident is an eye opener and indicative of railway officials total neglect of Ajni railway colony, the biggest over Indian Railways.
The Engineering Department does not have required manpower nor funds are provided by Railways to ensure better upkeep of its structures. From the time of construction barring one or two coats of paints, the required maintenance was never done resulting in the concrete structure loosing shine. The said quarter RB-II/375 (C) was allotted to Assistant Loco Pilot (ALP) Dinesh Meshram. It is suspected that the wall came crashing down sometimes past midnight. Had the incident occurred during day time someone might have got injured or perhaps endangered lives of residents living there. G M Sharma, Divisional Organiser, CRMS, said railway administration needs to wake up and take stock of the dangerous situation prevailing in railway colony. He demanded structural audit of all the G+2 structures whose condition is pretty bad and avoid repeat of incident like Tuesday Meanwhile post incident, Engineering Department swung into action and Sr.
Division Engineer (Co-ord) Pawan Patil along with his team visited the spot and inspected the structure. NRMU adopts aggressive stance National Railway Mazdoor Union (NRMU) adopted aggressive stance over incident of crashing of the parapet wall and ghearoed Senior Divisional Engineer (Co-ord) Pawan Patil on Tuesday afternoon. Union activists under leadership of by Habib Khan, Divisional Secretary, the NRMU shouted slogans against railway administration and accused them of endangering lives of employees. NRMU has demanded immediate survey of all railway quarters in the Ajni colony and ensure that measures are undertaken to prevent any major incident during the rainy season. Sr. DEN (Co-ord) has promised to conduct a survey of dilapidated buildings in colony and submit a report within three-days.
Quarters constructed in 1972 There are 2,053 quarters in Ajni Railway Colony and among them Type-II quarters, they are multi-storeyed, were constructed during 1972. As per norms, codal life of concrete structures is 50-years but it can vary depending upon circumstances and atmospheric conditions, stated Debashish Bhattacharya. These Type-II quarter buildings were built by Construction Organisation of Central Railway and during early seventies when there was licence raj and cement was under control list. Currently 24 such structures are there in colony and each of them is dilapidated owing to lack of maintenance. The cement used in Government contract used to one that was released through levy and there was always doubt about their quality, Bhattacharya said. He suggested that since the railway employee allotted quarter is not entitled to House Rent Allowance (HRA), the same amount of Ajni residents should be utilised for construction of new buildings in the colony.
Nagpur Divn has 38% deficient rainfall
Staff Reporter:
Though Vidarbha in general has received good downpour in the past few days, Nagpur Division in particular is still 38 per cent deficient in rainfall as compared to average for the period June 1 to July 2. As per the official data, of a total 64 tehsils in Nagpur Division, as many as 61 tehsils are deficient in rainfall. Only three tehsils in the division -- Umred (15 per cent), Korpana (45 per cent), and Jiwati (24 per cent) -- have received surplus rainfall. Rest 61 tehsils are deficient in rainfall in varying degrees. Among six districts namely Nagpur, Wardha, Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur, and Gadchiroli, Gondia is the worst-hit by deficiency. Gondia is still 53 per cent deficient in rainfall. Also, top three deficient tehsils in Nagpur Division are in Gondia district. These include Deori (72 per cent deficient), Sadak Arjuni (68 per cent deficient), and Salekasa (64 per cent deficient). Among other districts, Nagpur and Chandrapur are better off with only 22 per cent deficiency in receiving rainfall. In Nagpur district, Kalmeshwar is 63 per cent deficient, followed by Parseoni 54 per cent deficient in rainfall as compared to average. Umred has received 15 per cent surplus rainfall. Nagpur Rural has received 93 per cent of the average rainfall and is merely seven per cent deficient. It is followed closely by Hingna and Kuhi tehsils receiving 92 per cent and 93 per cent rainfall received so far. Overall, Nagpur district has received 158.28 mm rainfall as against average of 202.61 mm for the period between June 1 and July 2. In Nagpur city also, waterlogging took place in several areas due to shallows despite construction of tar road. As had happened a couple of years ago, water accumulation in Reshimbagh ground made it look like a new lake created by the civic authorities.
Many people circulated the photographs on social media with caption ‘Nagpur gets new lake at Reshimbagh’. Due to waterlogging on roads and important traffic junctions, Nagpur witnessed several small-time altercations between road users. Of course, not every sight was unpleasant. After the showers, several parts of Nagpur city wore green abundance pleasing the eyes. Flowers bloomed, and rain-drops dripped from the leaves. In Patrakar Sahaniwas and Raj Bhavan, peacocks were seen moving around. As far as agriculture is concerned, farmers welcomed the rains but wanted it to be evenly spread. Due to heavy downpour within a short span of time, rainfall average may be good in some parts, but it may not help in increasing percolation in soil. For, most of the water during heavy downpour goes into run-off. The situation is particularly grim, as has been stated earlier, in Gondia district where rainfall deficiency is higher than in other parts of Nagpur Division. In the last two years also, many farmers in parts of Gondia district had kept their farms uncultivated because of deficient rainfall. Heavy downpour in a short span of time in some pockets forced Water Resources Department authorities to release water from some of the reservoirs in Nagpur Division. From Mathani reservoir under hydro-electricity project on Kanhan river in Nagpur district, water was released at the rate of 434 cubic metre per second (cumecs). Similarly, 188.60 cumecs water was released from Rajegaon Kati project on Bagh river in Gondia district, 138.94 cumecs from Wadsa project on Wainganga river in Gadchiroli district, 50.52 cumecs from Deori project on Wainganga river in Gondia district, and 7.76 cumecs water was released from Waghuli Buti project on Wainganga river in Chandrapur district.
Train movement crippled due to heavy rain in State
Staff Reporter:
Train movement on Mumbai-Hawrah route was crippled on Tuesday due to incessant rains in the State Capital. Central Railway (CR) and South East Central Railway (SECR) was forced to reschedule many Mumbai-bound trains sending passengers in tizzy. Most of the trains were controlled at Nashik and Igatpuri stations as movement ahead was not possible due to submergence of tracks. The route from Thane to Mumbai was cut off whose ripple effect was felt backwards leading to stalling of train movements on the high density route of Indian Railways. A press release informed that 11402 Nagpur-Mumbai Nandigram Express short terminated at Nasik Road and ran as 11401 Mumbai-Nagpur Nandigram Express on Tuesday from Nasik Road. 12810 Howrah-Mumbai Mail was short terminated at Igatpuri and ran as 12809 Mumbai-Howrah mail via Nagpur from Bhusaval on Tuesday. 18030 Shalimar-LTT Express short terminated at Khandwa and ran as 18029 LTT-Shalimar Express from Bhusaval on Tuesday. 12106 Gondia-Mumbai Vidarbha Express short terminated at Nasik Road and ran as 12105 Mumbai-Gondia Vidarbha Express from Nasik Road on Tuesday. 12290 Nagpur-Mumbai Duranto Express short terminated at Nasik Road and ran as 12289 Mumbai-Nagpur Duranto Express from Nasik Road on Tuesday. 12106 Gondia-CSMT Vidarbha Express short-terminatated at Nashik station. 12105 CSMT-Gondia Vidarbha Express short-originated at Nashik station. 12290 NGP-CSMT Dueranto Express short-terminated at Nashik. 12289 Mumbai-Nagpur Duranto Express rescheduled at 1 am on Wednesday.
Short originated trains 12102 Howrah-LTT Dhnyaneshwari Express short terminated at Igatpuri station. 12809 CSMT-HWH Express short-originated from Bushawal station. 18029 LTT-SHM short-originated from Bhusawal station. 12289 CSMT-NGP Duranto Express short-originated at Nashik station.
Cancelled trains 12261 Mumbai-Howrah Duranto Express 12859 Mumbai-Howrah Gitanjali Express was rescheduled at 2.20 pm on Tuesday
Three flights cancelled, some diverted
Staff Reporter:
Passengers going to Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, Indore have to suffer a lot as several flights were diverted while three got canceled. Two flights scheduled to be landed at Nagpur’s Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport have diverted to Hyderabad. Several flights those took off from Kolkata, Delhi and Dubai were diverted to Nagpur. Some aircraft landed at Nagpur airport in the wee hours of Tuesday. The IndiGo flight that took off from Pune and supposed to reach Nagpur at 2 am was diverted to Hyderabad and then came back to Nagpur at 3 am. The flight that takes off for Mumbai at 5.20 am was canceled. The Qatar Airways flight that comes from Doha and lands at 2.30 am was diverted to Hyderabad. The Air India flight that comes from Mumbai at 7.20 am was canceled. This same flight takes off for Mumbai so the passengers had to suffer. The GoAir flight scheduled to land at Nagpur at 8.15 am from Mumbai reached at 12.15 noon and took off at 1 for Mumbai. The IndiGo flight that reaches Nagpur at 10 am from Mumbai, landed at city airport at 1.30 pm while it started for Mumbai after four hours than the scheduled time. The flight that reaches at 1.25 pm from Mumbai was canceled. Flight that comes from Indore at Nagpur at 8 pm landed here two hours late while the flight that was scheduled to reach at 8 pm from Kolkata was canceled. Due to heavy rain the main runway at Mumbai airport had to be closed and that had an impact on overall air transport. It was streamlined during day time on Tuesday. GoAir flight going to Mumbai from Kolkata, Delhi-Mumbai IndiGo and Dubai-Mumbai IndiGo all three flights had to made landing at Nagpur between 2 to 3 am.