Thane: Nearly 50 villages in the district have been cut-off from the tehsil headquarters and two bridges remained submerged as heavy rains continued to lash Thane on Wednesday.
About 50 villages of Murbad and Palghar talukas have been marooned and the villagers are being shifted to safer places, disaster control room officer Jaideep Visave said.
The worst hit are areas of Palghar, Vasai, Dahanu and Vikramgadh, he said.
At Manor in Palghar taluka, nearly 24 people who were stranded in a flooded resort, situated near Vaitarna river, were rescued last evening, he said.
Because of the heavy downpour, the Maswan bridge on the Palghar-Manor road was submerged since the last two days.Also, the bridge between Murbad and Rahta remained submerged leading to closure of the Murbad road.
Villages around the area have been cut-off from the outside world, Visave said.
In western part of Thane's Badlapur township, several houses were marooned and many people rendered homeless due to flooding, the official said.
Police and firemen rushed to Badlapur at around midnight last night and carried out rescue operations.
A teenaged boy had drowned on Tuesday in New Shivaji Nagar lake at Kalwa where he had gone for a swim along with his friends, a civic official had earlier said.
Meanwhile, around 150 villages along the Surya river in Palghar taluka have been put on alert this morning for discharge of water from a dam in the river.
Villages along Surya river banks have been alerted as 4,500 cusec water will be discharged in the river from Damani dam today, Palghar tehsildar Chandrasen Pawar said.
Surya river is swelling and over 150 villages along its banks have lost contact with the outside world, a disaster control room official said.
In Murbad taluka, Kapri bridge has also submerged and more than 40 villages around it are cut-off from the taluka headquarters, he said.
Traffic has been thrown out of gear on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway as the Maswan bridge in Palghar is completely submerged, the official said.
Also, the roads leading to Kasara Ghat (on way to Nashik) and Malshej Ghat (on way to Ahmednagar) have been closed after boulders fell on them this morning, he added.
A drain wall of about 60 ft collapsed today near Vishwakarma society at Sawarkar Nagar in Thane city, civic body's Regional Disaster Management Cell officer Santosh Kadam said.
