Maharashtra: Six feared drowned as boat flips in Solapur dam

Supriya Sule at Ujani dam, Solapur. Pic/X

Six villagers are missing and feared drowned, while one swam ashore after a motorboat overturned in a sudden storm at Solapur's Ujani dam waters in Solapur on late Tuesday night, reported news agency IANS.

On Wednesday morning, a specialised team was deployed by the NDRF to the site. As per an official, rescue operation was launched to trace the missing persons.

According to locals, the motorboat with seven people was sailing from Kugaon village in Solapur to the Kalashi village in Pune on the opposite bank.

The Solapur Police said that as per preliminary information, midway a sudden thunderstorm accompanied by strong winds lashed the vicinity, causing strong waves in the lake waters in which the small vessel overturned.

As per the report, a Solapur assistant police inspector Rahul Dongre, managed to swim safely to the opposite (Pune) shore while the others went missing in the darkness and have not yet been found till noon.

Their identities are given as Gokul D. Jadhav, 30; his wife Komal, 25; and their kids, including three-year-old daughter Mahi, and one-year-old son Shubham; a villager Gaurav Dongre and the boatman Anurag Avghade, 35.

The policeman Dongre, who swam safely to Kalashi, sounded an alarm and alerted the villagers, the Pune Police and district administration besides other rescue authorities which rushed to the tragedy spot, but could do little in the darkness with sporadic rain.

This morning, the NDRF deployed a team which started the search with expert divers, boats, ropes and other equipment, and further details are awaited.

Baramati MP and Nationalist Congress Party (SP) Working President Supriya Sule rushed to the spot and took stock of the situation and the rescue operations.