Pune:
Owing to heavy rains in the catchment areas, the Irrigation Department on Wednesday released water from Khadakwasla dam near Pune into the Mutha river, that passes through the city, which affected the low-lying localities.
Due to the discharge of water from the dam, Mutha river swelled for the first time this monsoon season, which led the low-lying Baba Bhide bridge in Deccan Gymkhana area to get submerged.
Fire brigade officials had to evacuate as many as 130 residents living in low lying areas off Sinhagad Road after water entered their houses.
"Water was released at the rate of 22,000 cu-secs on Wednesday morning, which rose to 39,000 cu-secs around 7 pm after the storage in the dam reached its maximum," Irrigation Department officials said.
"After water was released into the Mutha river, the low lying Baba Bhinde bridge submerged in Deccan-Gymkhana area and as many as 15 vehicles, parked along the river side, too, got submerged in the water," they said.
"The fire brigade officials rushed to the spot and took the vehicles out of the water," Prashant Ranpise, the chief fire officer of Pune Municipal Corporation said.
According to him, the Anandnagar area off Sinhgad road was flooded with water and as many as 134 people were evacuated after water entered the houses.
Meanwhile, the collective water storage in the four reservoirs of the dams around the city swelled to 22.28 TMC (76 per cent of total capacity) on Wednesday evening. This time last year, the water available in the four dams was 13.93 TMC, which was 47 per cent of the total capacity.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) Pune, from morning till 8.30 pm on Wednesday, total 32.9 mm rainfall was recorded.
The IMD has predicted intermittent showers for the city in the next 24 hours.