Heavy rain alert for Pune, Satara, Kolhapur ghats

PUNE: The chances of isolated heavy to very heavy rain on Wednesday in the ghat regions of Madhya Maharashtra have increased, prompting the Central Water Commission (CWC) to sound an alert about the probability of swelling of some rivers.


The Met department said the ghats of Pune, Kolhapur and Satara were likely to see heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places on Wednesday.

Sangli, Satara and Kolhapur might get light rain, while Pune was likely to experience light to moderate rain, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The CWC on Tuesday said since most of the dams were at Full Reservoir Level (FRL) in the Krishna basin in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, maximum care had to be exercised in operating the reservoirs during such rainy spells.

Rain alert for ghats of Pune, Satara, Kolhapur

Heavy to very heavy rain at isolated areas were expected in the ghat areas of Madhya Maharashtra on Tuesday, but the forecast was downgraded later in the day to just “heavy rain” based on the direction of the movement of the low-pressure system from the Bay of Bengal.

Anupam Kashyapi, head of weather, IMD, Pune, said a marginal rise in the rainfall activity was expected over parts of the state. “But the upcoming spell will not be very intense. Nearly, two-third of the state was affected by intense rain in the last heavy rain spell, but the one on August 14 is likely to affect mainly one-third of the state, particularly Vidarbha and north Maharashtra,” said Kashyapi.

Sources in the CWC said the river Krishna and its tributaries — flowing in “extreme flood situation” due to the ongoing extremely heavy rainfall for the past two weeks — had started falling and were in “severe flood situation” in some of the sites.

For the Godavari basin in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the CWC said on Tuesday that Indravathi, Sabari, Wainganga, Wardha, Pranhita and main river Godavari, downstream of Sriramsagar Dam (Telangana), were likely to get sudden flows because of the rainfall forecast in these states during the next three days.

Since most of the dams in Indravathi and Wainganga are more than 75% full, releases may be required after warnings to the downstream states. Due to the rainfall forecast in the Upper Godavari basin, strict watch has to be maintained for any rise in reservoir levels in the Upper Godavari basin, and releases, if any, should be done after proper information to downstream areas.