900 passengers including 9 pregnant women safely evacuated: NDRF

As many as 900 passengers including 9 pregnant women who were stranded on board Mahalaxmi Express between Vagani and Badlapur have been evacuated safely, said Director General of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) SN Pradhan here on Saturday.

"As of now, we have evacuated over 900. Of the 900, around 700 passengers were registered and recorded as per the reservation chart and 200 were unreserved passengers," Pradhan told ANI.

The rescue operations went on for around 8 hours and first, women and children were evacuated. "As many as 9 pregnant women were there. Elderly people were rescued after rescuing them and finally, male passengers were evacuated," he added.

Confirming that the situation is under control, Pradhan said; "There were differently-abled people and those who were nervous because they didn't want to get into the water. They were also counselled and evacuated during the last slot."

Further, he said that the NDRF team had actually been to another suspected stranding of a local train.

"The team returned after the local train was released after the water level went down. While their way back, they received a message informing that the Mahalaxmi express was stranded. Without any further preparation, the team had to rush to the spot with 6 boats," he added.

The Kolhapur-Mumbai Mahalaxmi Express was stranded since 3 AM today due to flooding of tracks.

Around three-foot-high flood water was reported near Vangani station, where the train was stuck.