Due to incessant heavy rain, most of Lonavala city was waterlogged on Sunday and all tourist spots had to be closed by the district administration, much to the chagrin of tourists. Not only were there long queues of vehicles on several highways connecting Pune city, trains and flights too were delayed due to the downpour over the last 24 hours.
Santosh Shimpi, who owns a restaurant in Lonavala, said, “Since the last two days, there is heavy rain in Lonavala city. Today, there was waterlogging all over Lonavala city. The traffic movement in the centre of the city area came to a standstill and even vehicles coming from the old Pune-Mumbai highway were diverted.”
Pune district collector Suhas Diwase said, “There is heavy rain across the district, especially at tourist destinations such as Lonavala, Bhor and Junnar and we are taking extra precautions as a large number of tourists are celebrating or going trekking over the weekend. Our appeal to citizens is to stay at home and step out only if absolutely necessary.”
Similarly, some trains and flights too were delayed due to the heavy rain and passengers were left stranded during the morning hours as they tried to reach Pune Airport/Pune Railway Station. “I had a flight from Pune to Delhi in the afternoon and it took me three hours to reach Lohegaon Airport in the morning as there was heavy rain and Nagar Road was jampacked,” said Aditya Mohite, a passenger.
Another passenger Kiran Pisal said, “My family was travelling from Pune to Indore by train. The train was scheduled to depart at 4 pm but due to heavy rain, we had to rush to the railway station and the train too was delayed by an hour. Luckily, we reached the station in time to board the train.”
{{/usCountry}}Another passenger Kiran Pisal said, “My family was travelling from Pune to Indore by train. The train was scheduled to depart at 4 pm but due to heavy rain, we had to rush to the railway station and the train too was delayed by an hour. Luckily, we reached the station in time to board the train.”
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