Chiplun city flooded after incessant rain: thousands stranded, access roads cut off, NDRF starts rescue operations

Chiplun floods: The NDRF team is unable to reach the spot because all roads leading to Chiplun are reportedly blocked due to the flooding, Ratnagiri district collector B N Patil said.

A view of the Chiplun bus stand that is completely inundated.

TORRENTIAL rain since last night has wreaked havoc in Ratnagiri district, with Chiplun city being the worst affected. Hundreds of Chiplun residents were stranded in their homes after Vashisti river, the lifeline of the city, overflowed.

“The flood situation is grim but under control,” Ratnagiri District Collector B N Patil told The Indian Express.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Coast Guard teams reached Chiplun on Thursday afternoon and rescue operations have begun, said Patil. “Helicopters have begun their sorties. So far, 100 stranded citizens have been moved to safer places and the rescue operation is continuing. We are providing food packets and shelter to the rescued citizens,” he said, adding that 10 teams of the Navy will also arrive in Chiplun by Friday morning.

Story continues below this ad

Chiplun has a population of 20,000-25,000. “However, as the water in the river started rising, many people… left the city, like they do during such situations in monsoon. It is true that several residents are still stranded in their homes but we do not know the exact number of those awaiting rescue,” Patil said.

Officials said in the past 24 hours, Chiplun registered 200 mm rain, the highest in Ratnagiri district. Many market places, residential and commercial complexes are under water. Electricity and communication lines have been snapped, bridges in and around Chiplun are under water and it was difficult to establish contact with local residents, said officials.

The State Transport bus stand has been completely submerged, with all parked buses under water. “An electricity sub-station in Chiplun has also been submerged, which has hit the power supply in the city. Cellphones of residents are not working and hence it is difficult to know who is stuck where,” said officials.

Patil said the the maximum water level in the city is up to seven feet. “Residential and commercial buildings up to first floor have been submerged. At most places, the water is up to five feet but at a few places it is up to seven feet,” he said.

Story continues below this ad

NDRF officials, meanwhile, said they have rushed four teams to Chiplun. “It is difficult to reach Chiplun because of flooded roads. We will send two more teams by helicopter. Each team has five boats. Residents should contact the helpline number of the collectorate, which will help us understand in which area and buildings the citizens have been stuck,” said NDRF officials.

Shiv Sena MP Vinayak Raut told The Indian Express, “As per my information, at least 5,000 residents need to be shifted to safer places as water as entered their homes. Vashishti river continues to be in spate…”.

The MP said the central government should rush helicopters to rescue people as the city has become inaccessible by road for rescue operations.

Raut also said that local police officials have told him that at least three people from one village were reported missing after a landslide. “One woman has been found dead,” he said.

Story continues below this ad

Sena leader Bhaskar Jadhav said, “Chiplun is like a saucer surrounded by mountains on all sides. In 2005, Chiplun had seen worse floods. But residents I spoke to are saying the situation now is worse than 2005.”

Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat said the state machinery was on alert and efforts were underway to help the stranded residents. “I have also spoken to Koyana dam officials who have stopped discharge of water after generation of electricity, which should help ease the situation in Chiplun,” he said.
Train services have also been badly hit, with all long-distance trains stranded en route, said officials.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories