With floodwaters receding in Kolhapur from Pune to Bengaluru highway, the administrations have now allowed tankers carrying essential supplies to cross the bridge.
The highway was partially opened for traffic on Monday after the water receded and partial vehicular movement was being allowed on it, Kolhapur police said.
The Mumbai-Bengaluru National Highway (NH-4) was submerged under floodwaters last week.
The Mumbai-Bengaluru highway continued to be shut for vehicular traffic for the third day on Sunday as its stretch near Shiroli village in the rain-battered Kolhapur district of Maharashtra remained submerged, a police official said.
As a result, around 2,000 Karnataka-bound vehicles, including trucks, are stranded on the national highway, the district police said.
The highway was shut for traffic since Friday after part of it got submerged due to rising water levels as a result of incessant rains in the district.
The Indian Army has stepped up its relief and rescue operations in Sangli, Kohlapur, and Ratnagiri districts. The flood-relief columns in coordination with the civil administration evacuated over 80 stranded locals from the flood-affected areas of Bastwad in Kolhapur, a defence release said
As floods and landslides continue to create havoc in the state, 34 self-contained National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have been deployed in view of the prevailing situation in Maharashtra.
As per an official statement, NDRF teams today evacuated about 500 stranded persons and rescued 44 persons from the affected areas.
Teams are constantly engaged in rescue and relief work for the last few days and so far rescued more than 3,100 stranded people and evacuated 1,250 persons to safer places during current floods in Maharashtra.
Search and rescue operations continue at six landslide locations in Raigad, Ratnagiri, and Satara districts, and teams have retrieved 90 dead bodies from the sites. Search is going on for the remaining 33 missing persons.
