M'rashtra floods: Relief work on

Massive evacuation work is on as dams open gates in central Maharashtra. Many have already moved to safety.

As you slept, the Chief Engineer of Aurangabad district’s Jayakwadi dam — one of the biggest in the area — opened its sluice gates to release its monsoon-swollen waters and flooded 178 villages from Aurangabad to Nanded. 

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has called an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday as it becomes increasingly clear that evacuating thousands ahead of advancing waters will be no easy task.

“There are 10 dams from Trimableshwar in Nashik region to Nanded that are releasing waters here,” said US Sarangi, principal secretary to the CM. “The evacuation operations have already started here.’’ Over 1,000 people were lifted to safety by helicopters in Central and Eastern Maharashtra over the weekend.

And so through the night the state government continued one of the biggest flood-evacuation operations ever seen in the normally arid lands of Central Maharashtra.

Over the weekend, tens of trucks and buses — both civil and army — trundled in and evacuated 52,000 people across 307 villages in Central Maharashtra alone. Though the rains subsided in the area, the Godavari, flowing in full spate across Deshmukh’s backyard of Marathwada, was three meters above its danger mark.

The floods in Maharashtra — in North, East and Central regions of the state — have left 69 dead, and 1.25 lakh temporarily homeless across its 685 villages. Food is now being cooked in 113 relief camps across the state.

Three army columns, an additional 135 army rescuers, four helicopters and 12 boats, are deployed in Marathwada alone, assisting local officials in rescue operations.

But as Deshmukh and his deputy RR Patil may themselves testify, even helicopters may not be able to take off in these stormy conditions. On Monday, both ministers, stranded at Aurangabad, had to call off a planned aerial survey.  However, Deshmukh did meet officials and promise a relief package to the flood-affected in Marathwada by Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in Northern Maharashtra, Jalgaon absorbed 186 mm of rainfall, over 27 per cent of its average season rainfall cascading down in the last 24 hours alone.