’Had to survive on biscuits and water’

Sister of newly-married couple Jaya and Rahul Jain conveys the anguish the duo suffered when they were trapped in the Thane resort

'Had to survive on biscuits and water'

Sister of newly-married couple Jaya and Rahul Jain conveys the anguish the duo suffered when they were trapped in the Thane resort

For Rahul and Jaya Jain, a birthday celebration for the newly-wedded couple turned ugly when they were trapped with 78 others at Silent Hills resort at Manor in Palghar ('80 trapped as rains threaten resort') when torrential rain laid siege to the resort.

For the married couple, the trip was to be a lovely romantic holiday but it was not destined to be so as it slowly unfolded into a nightmare landing them in a hospital for mental anguish.

Over 80 people were stranded at the Silent Hills resort
at Manor after the property was flooded by the incoming
tide. The hotel is located on the banks of Vaitarna river

Explaining the visit, Jaya's sister Shilpa said, "My sister's birthday is on August 28 and I decided to gift the couple a holiday at a resort. So I booked them a suite in Silent Hills."

Shilpa told MiD DAY that the couple left their residence on Saturday and checked in by afternoon. "Initially, I had booked a normal suite but owing to bulk bookings, they were upgraded to a bigger suite."

Shilpa said that when her sister called the reception the next day to remind them to shift them from their suite to their originally booked room, the staff warned them about the rising water levels and asked them to check out.

However, when Jaya told them that they had bookings till Monday, the staff at the reception said they would call her but they didn't, owing to which my sister assumed all was well and continued their stay.

"It was only at 4 pm on Sunday that Jaya and Rahul along with others hit the panic button when the electricity at the resort went off.

They were the only ones in the building with no staff to tend to them. Jaya and Rahul only had some biscuits and packaged water to sustain them," added Shilpa.

Worried and with no one to help them the couple began making frantic calls to family asking them for help and emergency contact numbers.

After finding the numbers of police stations in and around Manor and the control room at Mantralaya, they thought they were blessed when the Tehsildar office was alerted and officials reached the spot for rescue.

However, rescue teams sent by the BMC to the resort could not carry out operations owing to the rain.

"Because of no light in the area and the unpredictable waters it was difficult to conduct the rescue operation.

We were monitoring the situation and fortunately at around 6 am the water receded and guests could walk out of the resort.

But we had told resort authorities to send guests home but they didn't pay heed to our request," said Tehsildar Surendra Navle.

The Other Side
Nagendra Vishwakarma, the duty manager at Silent Hills Resort, said, "We had switched off lights as a precaution and we had told the couple to leave in the morning but they did not pay heed to our warning.

There was no staff in the building where they were housed. We offered to shift them by our boats to another building but they did not agree.
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We could not cook dinner for the guests in the night because of the water and no lights."