Thane: Two feared dead after entering Barvi dam amid heavy rain

Representational Image. File Pic

Two persons are feared dead after they entered the Barvi Dam in Thane district on Thursday amid heavy rains, reported PTI citing an official.

The two persons who are missing have been identified as Ganesh Chindu Kene (35) of Dongarnhave, and Dyaneshwar Budhaji Gondhali (35) of Shastri Nagar in Dudhalepada. As per the PTI report, there are speculation that may have been swept away.

How they got into the dam amid such heavy rains is not known, the district official said reported PTI.

A search operation is underway at the site.

The Indian Meteorological Department had issued a red-alert for Thane on Thursday. Additionally, neighboring districts of Mumbai, Palghar and Raigad were also on red alert. Heavy rains lashed these said areas causing water-logging, local train and traffic jams. Meanwhile, in Pune, heavy rains wreaked havoc in the city and four persons died due to rain-related problems on Thursday.

An orange alert has been issued for Thane, Mumbai, Palghar and Pune while Raigad continues to remain on red alert on Friday. All schools across all mediums and boards from grade 1 to grade 12 have been declared shut in these areas and Kalyan-Dombivali due to alerts of heavy rainfall.

Meanwhile, in Mumbai, the collective lake levels in the seven reservoirs that supply drinking water to the city are now at 58 per cent, as per the BMC data.

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data, on Wednesday, the collective lake levels or water stock in Mumbai lakes is now at 8,41,396 million litres of water or 58.13 per cent.

Mumbai draws water from Tulsi, Tansa, Vihar, Bhatsa, Modak Sagar, Upper Vaitarna, and Middle Vaitarna.

As per the data shared by the civic body, the water level in Tansa is at 96.26 per cent. At Modak-Sagar, 82.98 per cent of water stock is available.

In Middle Vaitarna 53.01 per cent, Upper Vaitarna 25.40 per cent, Bhatsa 55.88 per cent, Vehar 93.14 per cent and Tulsi 100 per cent of useful water level is available.

Tulsi Lake, one of two lakes that supplies water to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) area, began overflowing at 8:30 am today. This is a replay of last year's occurrence, when the lake began overflowing on July 20, 2023, at 1:28 pm, said the civic agency in a communique.

Tulsi Lake, built in 1879 at Rs 40 lakh, is the smallest of the lakes that provide water to Mumbai. The lake has a useful water storage capacity of 804.6 crore litres (8046 million litres) and provides an average of 18 million litres (1.8 crore litres) of water each day. The lake is roughly 35 km from the BMC headquarters.

"The 'Tulsi lake' of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), one of the two lakes that supply water to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation area and are located within the BMC area, has started overflowing at 8:30 am today, July 20, 2024. Last year also, on July 20, 2023, itself, the lake had started overflowing at around 1.28 pm," BMC said in its statement.