12- yr- old girl rescues stranded locals with raft in rain- hit city

Hindmata residents experienced a familiar sinking feeling, as their area remained inundated for several hours — a perennial occurrence — when the city received 119mm of rainfall on Saturday, the highest this season.

However, in an example of the true spirit of Mumbaikars, a schoolgoing girl played the Good Samaritan for residents of the notorious flooding spot. Zen Sadavarte, a 12year- old, rescued people stranded in flooding with the help of rafts, which she bought with her pocket money.

Zen’s father, advocate Gunratan Sadavarte, said, “After seeing the hardships suffered by locals during the last monsoon, Zen told us that she wanted to buy a raft to help people stuck in floods. For this, she started saving her pocket money. We bought two rafts worth ` 48,000, and they proved useful in the first heavy rains.”

According to local residents, the water accumulated in the area refused to recede from 11 am to 4 pm, and people were seen wading through knee- deep water to reach their destination.

“The main road at Hindmata junction was flooded on both sides of the bridge, making it almost impossible for vehicles to ply on these roads. The flooded roads had water currents generated from moving vehicles, which made it all the more difficult for pedestrians to wade through water. Some vehicles broke down. However, the traffic police and local people helped guide motorists towards less water- logged areas,” said an eyewitness.