Heavy rains wreak havoc in Mumbai, normal life, rail traffic hit hard

After two days of moderate showers, heavy rains lashed in Mumbai and its adjoining areas throwing normal life out of gear on Sunday morning. Rail and air traffic was disrupted following the heavy downpour which continued to pound the city and its neighbouring areas.

Mumbai woke up to heavy downpour today with no immediate respite likely as the weather office here predicted more showers throughout the day. KS Hosalikar, Deputy Director-General of Meteorology, India Met Department, Mumbai, tweeted, “With the development of low-pressure area over Bay, this Saturday night and Sunday, Mumbai is very likely to get intense heavy rainfalls.”

“Warnings are issued (for areas) including West coast,” he said.

The city, its neighbouring Thane and Palghar districts and Navi Mumbai town were witnessing incessant rains since last two days and a number of incidents of tree fall were reported from there, an official said.

In the last 24 hours, the city received 100 mm rain while the suburbs, Thane and Navi Mumbai got more than 250 mm downpour, IMD’s deputy director K S Hosalikar said.

Being a Sunday, most of the office-goers were spared of hardships caused by the suspension of local train services on various routes.

Due to the accumulation of water on tracks at a few sections following heavy and continuous rains, the Central Railway’s services on the Main Line and Harbour Line between the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (in Mumbai) and Karjat, Kasaraand Khopoli were suspended since 8 am, its chief spokesman Sunil Udasi said.

“This has been done as a precautionary measure to avoid hardships to commuters later...the situation will be reviewed every hour,” he said.

However, the train services on Trans-Harbour Line and fourth corridor of Kharkopar was running normally, he said.

Due to water-logging and crashing of boulders between Karjat (located in neighbouring Raigad district) and Lonavala hill town (in Pune district) in the Western Ghats section, several Mumbai-bound trains were terminated, diverted or cancelled, an official at the CR control room said.

The rail route from Pune to Mumbai was also closed, he added.

Besides local trains, some long distance trains like Duranto, Konark Express, Amritsar Express and Devgiri Express were stuck near Igatpuri (in Nashik district), and Aatgaon and Khardi near Kalyan, another Central Railway official said.

A Mumbai airport spokesperson said two incoming flights were diverted and six had to make a go around due to the heavy rains.

In Palghar, heavy rains led to water levels rising over tracks in some sections, leading to suspension of train services between Vasai and Virar towns, a Western Railway official said.

All Mail and Express trains were stopped on the Western line due to flooding on tracks near Nalasopara, he said.

However, trains were moving on the Vasai-Churchgate and Virar-Dadar sections, he added.

Meanwhile, boats were deployed to rescue around 400 people stranded in the Kurla suburb, officials said. Water seeped into many homes in Kranti Nagar area of Kurla, following which the BMC deployed rubber boats to rescue around 400 stranded residents.

In Church Road-Dahanukarwadi areas of Kandivali, some locals made temporary rafts of wooden board to ferry people to nearby areas for replenishing stocks of essentials.

Around 35 people of the tiny Ju village in Thane have been stranded due to rising flood waters and the state government has requested an air rescue operation for them.

They have been temporarily shifted to Bazarwad Municipal School and arrangements made to give them food, water and medical help as required, said the BMC Disaster Control.

In some villages in Pen, Raigad district, around 60 people were stuck in five-six feet deep water since 4 a.m. on Sunday, and the authorities have deployed NDRF teams to rescue them.