The meteorological department has issued red alerts for several regions in Maharashtra, indicating that heavy rain will continue for the next few days as the state deals with the heaviest downpour it has seen in 40 years. The Maharashtra government, led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, has enlisted the help of the Indian Army to assist local authorities in flood-affected areas.
The IMD predicted on Friday that the fairly widespread rainfall over the region, with isolated heavy to very heavy falls, would likely continue for the next two to three days over the west coast, with a reduction thereafter. However, isolated extremely heavy falls are very likely over the Konkan, Goa, and other parts of India.
A red alert has already been issued for parts of Maharashtra, including Satara, due to extremely heavy rainfall expected over the next 24 hours. The hilly ghat areas of western Maharashtra are expected to be pounded by heavy rains.
Isolated locations in the Satara district’s ghat sections were expected to receive extremely heavy rainfall, according to the IMD. The IMD has issued an orange alert for Pune and Kolhapur, predicting “heavy to very heavy rainfall” in isolated areas of the two districts’ ghat areas.
Many roads and villages have been submerged in floodwaters, and national and state highways such as Pune-Bengaluru, Goa-Mumbai, and Kolhapur-Ratnagiri have been closed for the past two days.
The collection and distribution of milk in the region has been disrupted by heavy rains and flooding, and the Gokul brand, owned by Kolhapur Zilla Sahakari Dudh Utpadak Sangh (KZSDUS), has announced that it will not be supplying milk pouches to Mumbai due to flooding in Maharashtrian districts such as Kolhapur and Sangli.
“The milk collection was largely affected on Thursday and Friday due to downpour in western Maharashtra and Konkan. Against the daily collection of 13 lakh litres, we could collect about 2.5 lakh litres on Friday,” KZSDUS chairperson Vishwas Patil told PTI.
According to Kolhapur Zilla Sahakari Dudh Utpadak Sangh, flooding in parts of the state has not only hampered milk collection, but has also halted milk transportation due to the closure of state and national highways. “As the heavy rains continued on Friday, many highways leading to Mumbai were closed. We will not be able to supply milk pouches to our Mumbai customers on Saturday as a result of this.”
Patil stated that supply to the Mumbai market will resume as soon as possible.
