400 stranded families rescued in flooded Vasai-Virar

Officers of Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC) said that owing to 175mm rainfall received on Thursday, coupled with the high tide from 10am to 1pm, waterlogging continued in several parts of the corporation areas, making it difficult for commuters and residents to lead a normal life

MUMBAI: Four hundred people who were stranded due to flooding in the Vasai-Virar region have been rescued and shifted to temporary accommodations on Thursday by National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Fire Brigade officials.

400 stranded families rescued in flooded Vasai-Virar

Continuous rainfall for more than 36 hours left several areas of the twin city, including the Mumbai-Ahmedabad heavily flooded on Thursday.

Officers of Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC) said that owing to 175mm rainfall received on Thursday, coupled with the high tide from 10am to 1pm, waterlogging continued in several parts of the corporation areas, making it difficult for commuters and residents to lead a normal life.

Several low-lying areas like the Suncity, Meethagar and Boidapada in Vasai were flooded with water levels of four feet. Residents of these areas were worst affected, said the civic officials.

Locals claimed that water had entered more than 300 houses resulting in several residents being trapped in their homes. The Fire Brigade and NDRF personnel distributed packets of food and medicines to the residents.

Around 7.30am, a bus carrying employees of a private company was stuck in Suncity after its engine broke down wading through three to four feet of water. “The water had entered the bus and we had nowhere to go, as everything, including the road, was completely inundated. It seemed like we were stranded at sea,” said one of the employees who was rescued by the fire brigade personnel.

The Fire Brigade located at Suncity reached the spot within five minutes of the incident being reported to them and managed to rescue the 20 commuters including a physically disabled person and a woman. Apart from this, at least 11 trees had been reported fallen in Nalasopara and Virar. Fire brigade officials from Vasai and Virar were pressed into action to remove the trees. “Clearing trees from the waterlogged roads was a difficult task,” said a fire brigade official.

Charushila Pandit, deputy commissioner of Vasai-Virar municipal corporation, said that rescue operation was on in several places where water has seeped into houses in Nalasopara and Vasai.

“The situation on Thursday was worse than Wednesday, as it had rained all night and owing to high tide the water was just not receding,” said Pandit.

Ramesh Manake, additional commissioner of the municipal corporation, said that an entire village of Adivasi Pada in Arnala was submerged in water. At night, around 9pm on Wednesday, a team of NDRF reached the spot and rescued the 30 tribal families staying there. “All the families have been shifted to temporary accommodations,” said Manale. He said that after a slab of a one plus two storey structure in Virar’s MB Estate building at Ram Mandir Road collapsed on Thursday and three people residing there were rescued by the civic authorities.