As discharge from dams goes up to 40,000 cusecs, residents along Pavana, Mula rivers urged to remain alert, shift to safety

The India Meteorological Department issued a red alert for Pune district, forecasting strong winds of 40–60 km per hour along with intense showers

The civic administration has said that the amount of water to be discharged from the Pavana dam in Pune will be increased to 5,660 cusecs by 2 pm as the reservoir has filled up to 99.42 per cent of its capacity.

The civic administration has said that the amount of water to be discharged from the Pavana dam will be increased to 5,660 cusecs as the reservoir has filled up to 99.42 per cent of its capacity. (File Photo)

As heavy rain continued in catchment areas of Pavana and Mulshi, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) administration and the irrigation department on Tuesday urged residents living along the river banks to remain alert and shift to safer places.

Late Tuesday evening, the PCMC administration said that the amount of water to be discharged from the Pavana dam by the irrigation department will be increased to 15,570 cusecs. Pavana dam reached capacity on Tuesday.

In the morning, the discharge of 2,860 cusecs of water was underway from Pavana dam, the main drinking water source for residents of the industrial city. By 2pm, the discharged was increased to 5,660 cusecs and went up to 11,900 by 6pm. “Depending on the rain, the discharge is either increased or lowered by the irrigation department which looks after the Pavana dam,” PCMC said in a statement.

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Irrigation department officials said the discharge from Mulshi dam will be increased to 25,400 cusecs from 10 pm today. Mulshi dam water reaches Mula river, which flows for over 10 km in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Mulshi dam’s impact is primarily felt in Sangvi area while the discharge from Pavana dam will impact the whole of Pimpri-Chinchwad, right from Ravet to Dapodi area.

Officials said the effect of the increased discharge from the dam will be felt by citizens around midnight. Dominic Lobo, a resident of Sangvi said, “In 2005, when the discharge from Pavana and Mulshi dams had gone up to 45,000 cusecs, it caused record flooding in Pimpri-Chinchwad. The residents need to be alerted all along the river banks.”

Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Singh said the civic body was prepared to handle any emergency and directed all departments to be on standby and act swiftly in the event of rising water levels or flooding. The civic administration said schools were being readied to provide temporary shelter to the people in case flood water enters their homes.

The India Meteorological Department issued a red alert for Pune district, forecasting strong winds of 40–60 km per hour along with intense showers. In Pimpri Chinchwad, Pavana, Mula, and Indrayani rivers witnessed a rise in water levels due to heavy inflows and controlled releases from dams, officials said.

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The PCMC chief instructed emergency response teams to be deployed round the clock to monitor riverside areas, ensure the timely relocation of families if required, and provide facilities such as food, medical aid, and shelter at safe locations. Civic departments, including health, fire, engineering, water supply, and environment, have been directed to work in coordination, while police authorities will manage traffic flow in affected areas.

To prevent the spread of seasonal diseases during the wet spell, fumigation, spraying medicines, and health check-ups will be intensified. Public announcements will be made in low-lying areas to keep citizens informed about river water levels. “All our systems are on high alert. I appeal to residents, especially those living near rivers, to remain vigilant and cooperate with the administration in ensuring safety,” Singh said.

Helpline numbers

Senior civic body officers, along with the commissioner, were constantly reviewing the situation. Those in need of assistance have been urged to contact the PCMC main control room at 020-67331111 / 020-28331111 or the Fire Department at 7030908991. Additional fire station contacts have also been made public for quick response.

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

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