Bouts of heavy rain lashed the city on Tuesday, causing water-logging in some areas and leading to traffic snarls on arterial roads. The worst hit was Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) after a SpiceJet aircraft SG 703 (Varanasi-Mumbai) overshot the runway on landing and got stuck in mud.
According to the airport officials, chutes were deployed and emergency services were activated. No fire or smoke was detected, and all flights at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport were kept on hold, with at least seven cancellations.
Flights into Mumbai were cancelled later at night as the airfield remained shut due to the stalled aircraft. Attempts to operate Runway 14 also failed due to gusting tail winds of up to 20 knots. Departures restarted after midnight.
Vinod Tawde, the State Education Minister, said that all schools in Mumbai would remain shut today in view of the high tide prediction.
Heavy rainfall began at about 1pm, and within just seven hours, the Colaba observatory recorded 142 mm of rainfall, while the Santa Cruz observatory recorded 136.5mm of rains till 8.30pm.
The western suburbs received about 79 mm of rainfall late on Tuesday night, with more rain forecast for today.
Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said that Mumbai might witness similar spells of rains today as well. Heavy rains, along with gusty winds, were the result of an active weather system along the Arabian Sea, they said.
The rains caused water-logging in at least five areas — Andheri Subway, Hindmata, Mithibai junction on SV Road in Vile Parle, Milan Subway in Santa Cruz, and on Veera Desai Road.
About 182 de-watering pumps were put into service at 14 chronic flooding spots to flush out the water. The BMC has also issued a high-tide warning of 4.54 m at 12.03 pm on Wednesday.
A portion of a ground-plus-two storey MHADA building in Kamathipura in the Nagpada area collapsed at around 7:35 pm. No casualties were reported.
Traffic snarls clogged the Eastern Express Highway, Amar Mahal flyover, Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road, Jijabai Bhosale Road and the Sion-Bandra Link Road. Vehicular movement was slow in both directions on Kavi Keshavsut flyover.
There was also heavy traffic on the north-bound arm of the Western Express Highway from Kalanagar to Vakola flyover, and from Bandongri to Andheri bridge.
North-bound traffic was also slow on Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, with a pile-up till Ambedkar Statue due to slow traffic on the freeway. Traffic towards Bandra-Worli Sea link was restricted, which led to long traffic jams at both ends of the Sea Link.
While there was no water-logging on railway tracks, train services on the Harbour line were affected between 2:40 pm to 3:15 pm due to a tree that fell on the overhead cables between Vile Parle and Santacruz. Services between CSMT and Andheri were affected due to this, while the main line remained operational.
Later in the evening, there were issues at Bandra station, after the track circuit failure and technical fault at Vasai. “There are delays of 10 minutes or so. There were barely three cancellations,” said Mukul Jain, Divisional Railway Manager (Mumbai), WR.
On the CR line, announcements were made asking people to leave in the available trains. “The trains are running late by 10 minutes or so, but there were barely any cancellations,” said Ravindra Goel, Divisional Railway Manager, CR.
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 "Waterlogging at Santa Cruz")
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