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Mumbai rains: Normal life, train services disrupted
While suburban train services on the Western, Central and Harbour lines stopped, heavy water-logging causes traffic snarls on Mumbai highways
Mumbai: Heavy showers accompanied by strong wind unleashed an all-too-familiar mayhem in Mumbai and suburbs on Tuesday, bringing the financial capital to a halt.
Suburban train services on all three lines—Western, Central and Harbour—stopped around 1pm, leaving thousands of commuters stranded on trains or stations.
Heavy water-logging and more than normal traffic due to the ongoing Ganpati festival caused traffic snarls at multiple points across the city, including the Western and Eastern Express Highways, which connect the island city with the suburbs and the larger metropolitan region. Multiple flights got delayed due to heavy showers and low visibility.
An afternoon weather update issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said Mumbai and suburbs had received 15 centimetres of rain over the 15 hours preceding the afternoon. The IMD has also issued an advisory about high tide in the Arabian sea at 4.35pm. The IMD has predicted tides as high as 3.32 metres during high tide.
Between 8.30am and 11.30am, the Santacruz weather station recorded 86 millimetres of rainfall in Mumbai suburbs, according to K.S. Hosalikar, deputy director general, IMD, Mumbai Region. During these three hours, the Colaba weather station recorded 16mm of rainfall in the island city. Dadar area alone received 150mm rainfall between 8.30am and 11.30am.
“This is very heavy rainfall. More than 65mm of rainfall in 24 hours is considered as very heavy rainfall. Heavy to very heavy rainfall warning for the next 24 hours has been issued for entire Maharashtra,” Hosalikar said in a statement. The IMD, however, has ruled out a repeat of the 26 July 2005-like situation when Mumbai had recorded around 949mm of rainfall that flooded the city and claimed around 500 lives. “It is not a 26 July 2005 like situation as clouds over Mumbai are not thick,” Hosalikar said.
Around 7 million people travel by Mumbai trains each weekday. In addition, around 3.5 million people take the BEST buses. While the train services came to a halt around afternoon, BEST bus service was hit by water-logging and heavy traffic. All three train services came to a halt around afternoon following extremely heavy water-logging on tracks in usually vulnerable areas like Kurla, Sion, Dadar, Saki Naka and Mahim. Citizens who took the Bandra-Worli Sea Link reported extremely low visibility and strong winds.
A statement issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said around 136 pumps have been deployed all across the city and suburbs to drain out water and all six civic pumping stations are working to capacity. The BMC and Mumbai police issued an advisory, asking citizens to not step out, unless absolutely necessary, in the next 24 hours. Five teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) left Pune at 12.45pm for deployment in Mumbai, said the BMC statement.
Meanwhile, the Bombay Stock Exchange has said in a statement that non-core operational staff can leave early due to heavy rains in the financial capital of India.
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First Published:29 Aug 2017, 02:11 PM IST
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