RailEnquiry

NAGPUR/CHANDRAPUR/WARDHA: Heavy downpour lashed Nagpur and Chandrapur throwing life out of gear on Friday. Chandrapur recorded the highest rainfall of the season so far at 280 mm in entire Vidarbha and the city recorded 128.6 mm from 8.30 am to 8.30 pm. The regional meteorological office has predicted heavy rains for another 48 hours in the entire region.

The city's Ambazari lake too was overflowing. Sources said that this is for the first time since 1994 that the lake is overflowing in the July. The lake usually overflows in August-September. The heavy rains caused the Gandhi Sagar lake to overflow a few days ago.

The Gorewada reservoir too is threateningly filled close to the brim. The lake's overflow height is 315.65 meter. According to leader of ruling party Praveen Datke, the water level is only .5 meter below the overflow height. He said high alert announced in areas situated on the banks of Pili river especially in West and North Nagpur. "Families living along the Pili River banks will be shifted to NMC schools," he said. Gorewada lake's overflow water enters Pili River. Bor nullah, a major tributary of Pili River, is in spate.

The were reports of at least three people drowning in Chandrapur and one dying of lightning strike in Brahmapuri. Wardha district, which has recorded 728.19mm rains this season, has claimed nine lives so far and caused a heavy damage to the crops on more than 11,000 hectares.

Maximum rain in the 12 hours in city was received between 5.30 am to 8.30 pm. The rainfall in first nine hours was just 14.6 mm but this figure reached 128.6 mm by 8.30 pm. Most other districts in Vidarbha did not receive much rain on Friday. Washim, Amravati, Gondia did not get any rains at all. Brahmapuri in Chandrapur district was the only town which received 42 mm from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm. Wardha recorded just 4 mm and Yavatmal recorded 1 mm.

On Thursday it rained heavily in entire Wardha district. Wardha city received 158mm and one of its talukas town, Selu, received 256mm rain from Wednesday 8.30am to Thursday 8.30am.

The downpour caused nullahs to overflow in Chandrapur and the Ramala lake too was overflowing. The streets were submerged and many homes flooded. Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on the streets for hours due to water logging on streets. The entire district witnessed heavy downpour and Nagpur-Chandrapur highway was cut off due to water overflowing the rivers and nullahs.

An autorickshaw was swept away from the overflowing bridge on Bhivkund nullah on Ballarpur-Chandrapur road at around 3 pm. Three people drowned while passersby managed to rescue four passengers. Two bodies - including that of a three-year-old girl Priya Bind and her father Rupesh (28) - were recovered and one remained untraced till late in the evening. One person was swept away in Chandrapur's Indira Nagar area.

Vehicular traffic came to a standstill and Chandrapur city's thoroughfares were flooded. Water entered many shops along the roads. Some schools withheld their bus services, holding the students back at the school due to flooded streets. Many houses, particularly those in slum areas, collapsed due to heavy rains. Water entered over 200 houses and hutments in Warora town. All major roads in the district were cut off due to flash floods following heavy rainfall. Bridges on Rajura-Ballarpur, Warora-Wani, Chimur-Warora, Chandrapur-Mul, Ballarpur-Kothari, Chandrapur etc were reported overflowing.

About 700 people were shifted from low-lying areas of Chandrapur, 100 in Bhadravati and 38 people were shifted to safer places in Pombhurna. All seven gates of the Irai dam were opened by 1 metre and it added to the woes of flood-hit people. Guardian minister Sanjay Deotale visited Chandrapur and inspected the flood hit areas.

Before this Nagpur had received 145.1mm rainfall on July 15 and Wardha had recorded a high of 158mm on July 18. The city had received a high of 187mm on June 26 when it had poured continuously for two days. As per the regional meteorological office the highest ever rainfall in 24 hours in city was recorded on July 12, 1994 at 304 mm.

Train movement hit: Heavy rains also affected train movement. Trains including Rajdhani Express, Lucknow-Chennai Express were running late as rainwater had submerged the railway tracks in Chandrapur. Rail traffic on the Mumbai-Nagpur route too has been severely hit.

Flights affected: The heavy rain affected the air traffic in Nagpur. The Jet Lite Mumbai-Nagpur flight was held for 25 minutes before it was allowed to land at Nagpur airport due to poor visibility. The flight landed at 7.30 pm when visibility improved.

Mining ops stalled: The deluge has brought mining activity to a standstill in Chandrapur. Five of the Western Coalfields Limited's (WCL) mines have been cut off due to flooding. These include two underground mines which are more prone to risk. WCL sources say there have been no casualties as the miners were evacuated soon after the water started reaching the danger levels. The mines have been cutoff since last four days. A senior WCL official said it may take a few more days for things to normalize even if the rains stopped on Saturday.

5 CSTPS units shut: Power generation in the state has taken a big hit as five out of seven units of the 2,340 MW Chandrapur power station were not generating on Friday. The remaining two units were only generating about 150 MW. Unit 4 and Unit 5 have been taken out for maintenance. Unit 2 is down due to boiler tube leakage while Unit 6 developed a snag when a blast took place in its transformer duct. Unit 7 was a victim of heavy rain as coal became sticky.

Rainfall in 12 hours across Vidarbha

Amravati nil

Akola 8

Brahmapuri 42

Chandrapur 280

Buldhana nil

Gondia nil

Wardha 4

Yavatmal 1

(Rainfall in mm)

* Heavy rains disrupt rail movement

* Mumbai-Nagpur flight landing delayed due to poor visibility

* Mining in WCL's mines comes to a standstill

* Power generation too affected