National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel remained busy throughout Saturday, engaged in rescue work as several trains were stranded in flooded tracks following incessant rains in Pune, Mumbai and others areas of the state.
NDRF personnel were called in after five trains were stuck in rainwater near Mumbai but the water receded and the trains resumed their journeys before the teams reached the spot.
Separately, more than 200 NDRF personnel were rushed to Badlapur near Mumbai, where the Mahalaxmi Express was stranded after heavy rains flooded the tracks.
The 5th Battalion of NDRF, which is headquartered at Sudumbare near Talegaon in Pune district, has under it 18 teams of 45 members each, which are equipped with boats, state-of-the-art cutting tools and a dog squad. Presently, six of these teams are stationed at Andheri in Mumbai to respond to any emergency.
One team each is stationed at Sindhudurg and Nagpur, while the remaining 10 teams are stationed in Sudumbare.
Deputy Commandant (5th Battalion) Sachchidanand Gawade said, “A little after midnight, we received a call from the railway authorities that at least five trains were stranded around the Ambarnath to Badlapur patch. Two teams stationed in Andheri were immediately rushed to the area. But before we could reach the area, we got to know that the water had started receding. As a precautionary measure, the teams remained there for a while and as the situation became normal, they returned to base in Andheri.
As per our information, the stranded trains continued their respective journeys.”
Battalion Commandant Anupam Shrivastav said, “Around dawn we got another call from the railways that the Mahalaxmi Express was stranded in rainwater near Vangani after Badlapur. We sent two teams from Andheri and three more from Sudumbare in Pune. The rescue operation went on till Saturday afternoon in coordination with local authorities, fire brigade, Air Force and Navy and local people. All agencies called off the operation after all the passengers were rescued and moved to a safe place.”
“Earlier, our teams also responded to two separate calls of two persons drowning, one in Sindhudurg and the other at Maval in Indrayani river. In Sindhudurg, the body was recovered while in Maval, rescue operations could not be launched due to extremely heavy flow of water,” Shrivastav said.
Later in the day, two teams of NDRF were deployed in Tamba and Raite villages in Kalyan tehsil of Thane district, where people were stranded in their houses as water levels rose. The teams had rescued 18 people till late in the evening.