Raigad landslide: 12 killed in landslide at Irshalwadi, rescue ops on

Twelve people were killed after a massive landslide at a village in Maharashtras Raigad district Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said on Thursday according to the PTIThe landslide occurred around 11 pm on Wednesday at Irshalwadi village in Khalapur tehsil around 80 km from Mumbai an official saidThe incident took place after torrential rains in the areaCM Shinde reached the site in the morning to take stock of the situation and spoke to personnel engaged in rescue operationsSo far 12 dead bodies have been recovered by search and rescue teams As many as 103 people have been identified who were living there Some of them were out for work in paddy fields and some children had gone to residential schools Search for them is on he said according to the PTIThe state government is making all efforts to carry out the rescue and relief operations in the area he addedThis village was not in the list of landslideprone villages CM Shinde told reporters according to the PTIOur priority now is to rescue those still trapped beneath the rubble he said the PTI reportedThis is very unfortunate incident and the state government stands with the affected people the CM saidThere is continuous heavy rainfall and the debris and rubble has mounted up to 15 to 20 feet he saidCM Shinde said authorities were not able to move the machinery for the rescue operationTwo helicopters have been kept ready for the operation but they have not been able to takeoff due to the bad weather he saidOn rehabilitation of the landslideaffected villagers the CM said 50 to 60 containers have been arranged for them as temporary shelters and there was a plan to move them to a safer placeWe will soon take steps to carry out proper rehabilitation of the landslideaffected villagers I have spoken to the divisional commissioner and district collector and discussed about permanent rehabilitation of these villagers immediately We are doing it on a warfooting CM Eknath Shinde saidEarlier in the day Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in a statement said 48 families were living thereThe medical expenditure of the injured persons will be borne by the state government We will announce a proper compensation for the the kin of the deceased persons he saidFour NDRF teams along with local authorities were engaged in the rescue work an official saidFire brigade and some local trekkers were also helping in the rescue operation he saidThe village has around 50 houses of which 17 were buried under the landslide the official saidRescue teams from neighbouring Thane were also sent to the spot as per the authoritiesThe village is six km from Morbe dam which supplies water to Navi Mumbai It is located near Irshalgad fortress located between Matheran and Panvel The fortress is a sister fort to PrabalgadIrshalwadi is a tribal village inaccessible by pucca road Chowk village on MumbaiPune Highway is the nearest townThis is the biggest landslide in Maharashtra after the July 30 2014 landslide at Malin village in Ambegaon tehsil of Pune districtThe massive landslide had swallowed up almost the entire tribal village of around 50 families The final death toll was 153 when the rescue operation was stoppedNothing of the old village remains except for its school building