Heavy rains to hit coastal Maha for two days; Red Alert in Raigad-Ratnagiri

Mumbai, July 15 (IANS) As incessant rains continued to batter most parts of Maharashtra for the last three days, the IMD issued heavy downpour warnings for coastal regions, including Red Alert for two districts, here on Monday. Raigad has been issued a Red Alert for Monday-Tuesday, Ratnagiri sounded a Red Alert for Monday while Mumbai, Thane are under an Orange Alert till Tuesday.Palghar, which has been experiencing heavy rains since Friday, will also be on Orange Alert on Tuesday.Ratnagiri will continue to remain in the Orange Zone from Tuesday till Friday, while Raigad would experience some respite on Wednesday-Thursday, before lapsing into Orange Alert on Friday.On Monday, schools and colleges remained shut in Ratnagiri and all examinations scheduled for the day were postponed due to heavy rains and water flooding several towns including Ratnagiri city, Mandangad, Dapoli and Khed.Mumbai-Thane-Palghar shall witness an easing in the rain situation with Yellow Alerts from Tuesday till Friday, as per the IMD.The Konkan Railway linking the western coastal part of India has witnessed a huge chaos owing to waterlogging on the tracks, leakages or flooding in tunnels, landslides at certain spots leading to huge delays and cancellations of several long-distance trains.The monsoon has now covered almost the entire Maharashtra, cheering the farmers and people, during the past week and is gradually wiping out the seasonal rain deficit, with the lake levels in Mumbai achieving 30 per cent water stocks, or equivalent to the stock available on the same dates in 2023.The rains have boosted the water stocks in many reservoirs, dams, lakes, wells in Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Pune, Satara, Nashik, Ahmednagar and other district all over the state, though parts of Marathwada-Vidarbha have yet to get sufficient rainfall.–IANSqn/rad