Buldhana (Maharashtra) [India], August 18 (ANI): Due to heavy rains in the catchment area of Khadakpurna and Pentakali projects of Buldhana district, water is being released from both these dams since today morning, said Sadashiv Shelar, SDM.

The Khadakpurna dam of Deolgaon Raja district is 91% filled, and all its 19 gates have been opened up to 50 centimetres. Due to this, 45,876 cusecs of water are being released into the river. On the other hand, the Pentakali dam of Mehkar district is 88% filled. Since this morning, nine gates have been opened up to 20 cm, releasing 9,656 cusecs of water into the river.

According to SDM, heavy rains have been continuing in Buldhana district since yesterday, resulting in the closure of 8 to 9 roads, which have now been reopened.

Meanwhile, Mumbai has been experiencing heavy rainfall since Monday morning, leading to delays in local trains due to decreased visibility and waterlogging at some places. Both the Mainline and the Harbourline are delayed by nearly 10 to 15 minutes. The administration is on high alert and all necessary precautions are being taken to avoid any mishap in heavy rain.

Central Railway CPRO, Dr Swapnil Dhanraj Nila cited the local news regarding the water logging issue at some places and said, '... As per the report available till now, only around 3-4 stations on harbour line Kurla, Chembur, Tilaknagar are having some issues of waterlogging and the points on these stations have been clamped and the movement of trains is delayed on harbour line by approximately 10-15 minutes. On the main line, the delay is around 8-10 minutes, but it is primarily because of reduced speed on account of reduced visibility due to the heavy rains which are reported at various locations from Karjat to Kalyan, Kasara to Kalyan, as well as Kalyan to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus...'

The CPRO assured that the administration is ready in case of emergency and said, 'There has been an additional deployment of manpower, specifically engineering manpower, who have been deployed at various locations that are previously prone to waterlogging, and they have been equipped with an adequate amount of water removing materials and the motors of high capacity pumps have been provided at multiple locations...'

Meanwhile, the Weather Department has issued a Red and Orange alert for 24 hours in several districts of Maharashtra. The state has been experiencing heavy rainfall since early Monday morning.

The Red alert has been issued in areas including Mumbai, Raigad, Pune Ghat, Satara Ghat, Ratnagiri, and Kolhapur Ghat. Several districts, including Palghar, Thane, Sindhudurg, Jalgaon, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalna, Beed, Latur, Amravati, Chandrapur, and Gadchiroli, have been put under orange alert.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has declared a holiday in all schools after heavy rains. The BMC PRO issued a statement saying that all schools of the afternoon shift will remain closed on Monday. The civic body has also appealed to citizens to avoid stepping out unless absolutely necessary. For any emergency or official information, residents are advised to reach out to the BMC main control room helpline at 1916. (ANI)