Nagpur rains: Devendra Fadnavis visits affected areas; says plans needed for Nag river, Ambazari lake

Pic/Twitter@Dev_Fadnavis

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday morning took stock of the rain situation in Nagpur and visited homes to interact with flood-affected families, reported news agency PTI.

Extremely heavy rainfall of 109 millimetres in three hours, including 90 mm between 2am and 4am on Saturday, inundated several areas of the city, Devendra Fadnavis said.

The National Disaster Response Force and its state counterpart SDRF are undertaking rescue and relief operations across Vidarbha's largest city, Devendra Fadnavis informed.

"As many as 10,000 homes have been affected. Mud has entered houses. The administration is providing medicines and help in cleaning up flood affected areas. The level of damage is serious. The amount of rainfall was higher than carrying capacity of the area," Devendra Fadnavis told reporters.

"We could have minimised the damage if some measures were taken earlier. The IMD had given an orange alert but it could not predict this much rain would fall in such a short time. There is always something to learn from such disasters," he said.

In the morning, Devendra Fadnavis visited areas in the vicinity of Ambazari Lake, the city's largest waterbody, which breached its boundaries on Saturday due to heavy rains.

"The protective wall and others structures of Nag river will have to be rebuilt. The state government will also plan some infrastructure to minimise the damage when Ambazari Lake overflows," Devendra Fadnavis informed.

Four persons, including a 53-year-old paralysed, bedridden woman, died in rain-related incidents, while more than 400 people had to be shifted to safety on Saturday.

Late Saturday night, Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari chaired a meeting to review the situation.

Meanwhile, relief work began in full swing on Sunday in Nagpur after extremely heavy rains a day earlier caused flooding in most parts, leading to water gushing into at least 10,000 homes, officials told PTI.

The Ambazari Lake, the city's largest such waterbody, and the Nag river breached their boundaries, leading to severe flooding all through Saturday.

Nagpur Municipal Commissioner Abhijeet Chaudhari told PTI the civic administration began cleaning up silt in homes and localities after flood water receded.

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