1,050 SAVED FROM MAROONED TRAIN
Mumbai/ Nashik: All 1,050 passengers on board Kolhapur-bound Mahalaxmi Express were rescued on Saturday in a multi-agency operation nearly 17 hours after the train got stranded near Vangani in Thane district due to flooding on tracks following heavy rains. Central Railway (CR) officials said all the passengers, including nine pregnant women, were rescued by 3 pm. Teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Navy, Air Force, Army, Railways and state administration rescued all the passengers. The train had left Mumbai for Kolhapur on Friday night, but could not travel beyond Vangani, where it reached in the wee hours Saturday.
Chief spokesperson of the CR Sunil Udasi said all 1,050 passengers were taken to a safe spot. "A special train with 19 coaches will leave from Kalyan to Kolhapur with the affected passengers of the Mahalaxmi Express," Udasi said. Officials involved in the rescue operation said the nine pregnant women and a one-month-old baby girl were also safe.
The Mumbai-Goa national highway was shut for traffic since Saturday morning due to flood in the Jagbudi river in coastal Ratnagiri district following heavy rains, police said. Torrential rains since Friday night have triggered a flood-like situation in some parts of Thane, Raigad and Ratnagiri districts.
The river water gushed on the highway near Khed in Ratnagiri district this morning. Savitri and Amba rivers in Mahad and Pali in Raigad district are also in spate following which traffic at Nagothane and on Khopoli-Pali road has been suspended, he said.
The IAF airlifted over 120 people stuck in different parts of Thane district in Maharashtra due to flash floods triggered by heavy rains, an official said. While at least 70 people were stranded on the terrace of a petrol pump in Badlapur town, around 65 km from Mumbai, another 45 people were stuck at a private resort in Shahad, 46 kilometres away, the state disaster control room official said here.
With 140 mm rain recorded in Trimbakeshwar in Nashik district in the last 24 hours ending on Saturday morning, water has started oozing from the base of the Shiv Linga in the sanctum sanctorum of the famous temple. According to officials of the Trimbakeshwar Devasthan Trust, the water started trickling out from the 'Jyotirlinga' foundation on Saturday morning amid heavy rains.
As per legend, a channel of the Godavari, which originates from the Brahmagiri mountain on whose foothills the temple is located, flows at the base of the Shiv Linga. The quantum of rainfall received in Trimbakeshwar from 8 am on Friday to 4 pm on Saturday stood at 210 mm.
