Heavy rain wreaks havoc on Mumbai

The first heavy rains of the season left the city stranded on Friday, as several parts received more than 100mm of rain.

Bandra Kurla Complex received the highest amount of rainfall (115.57mm), followed by Kurla (104.91mm). Other suburban areas like Andheri, Deonar, Vile Parle Chembur and Borivli also witnessed heavy rain. On an average, the island city received 29.45mm rainfall, eastern suburbs received 83.38mm and western suburbs received 68.42mm.

“With the lull seen last month, the revival of the monsoon was on the cards,” said VK Rajeev, director IMD.

The rain, accompanied by a high tide, contributed to water logging at various places like Khar subway, Andheri subway, Marol Naka, Bahar junction, Andheri, Byculla lane, Gandhi Nagar, Milan subway, Centaur junction, Umarshi Bappa chowk, Kurla, Nehru Nagar, Surve junction, LBS Road, Gandhi market, Matunga, Mankhurd, Chheda Nagar, Kale Marg, Kajupada, Ghatkopar, and Nawab tank in Pydhonie.

The water logging led to traffic diversions at Milan subway, Sion and Andheri subway. The Andheri subway had to be shut for over 30 minutes in the afternoon.

The BMC used 30 pumping machines to flush out water from the roads. The heavy rains also resulted in over 50 trees being uprooted. A landslide incident was reported at Gilbert Hill in Andheri.

Rail services hit
Water logging in Kurla affected movement of trains between Vidhyavihar and Sion.  Local train services were delayed by around 45 minutes, affecting the Central, Western and Harbour lines. Signals on the railway lines had failed at Kurla and Bandra earlier in the day.

While more than 70 trains were cancelled on CR, 24 were cancelled on WR. A speed restriction of 15kmph had to be imposed on CR. Although train services did not come to a complete halt, they were running 30-45 minutes behind schedule on the Central line and at least 20-25 minutes late on the Western line. However, WR chief spokesperson Sharat Chandrayan denied that there was any delay.

Students brave rains
Students had to brave heavy rains to get to school. Some schools — like Podar International School, Santa Cruz, and the nursery section of Utpal Sanghvi School, Juhu — declared the day off. Others let their students go early. Attendance in most schools was less than 50%. Students of St Paul School, Dadar, had to wade through waist-deep water to reach school, only to realise that the school was closed.

“We had told parents that it would be their decision whether or not to send children to school. Many chose not to send them,” said Father Francis Swamy, principal, Holy Family School, Andheri.

President delayed
President Pratibha Patil’s convoy was detained and delayed for over 15 minutes on Thursday night after her arrival in the city. This led to additional deployment of traffic personnel and diversions on Friday. Patil was in Mumbai to attend a host of functions.

Joint police commissioner (traffic) Vivek Phansalkar said: “The president’s convoy moved on smoothly without any hitches on Thursday and on Friday,” he said.

Corporators raise the roof
The civic standing committee was in an uproar as corporators complained about the water logging. Sunil Prabhu, leader of the house, blamed the civic administration for its lackadaisical attitude.

However, Aseem Gupta, additional municipal commissioner, said that flooding is inevitable. “Lack of open spaces and water bodies and increasing concretisation mean that there is nothing to absorb the run-off water.”

10 labourers killed
Ten labourers were killed and two critically injured at a construction site of Tanvi Eminence in Mira Road when a wall adjoining their huts collapsed on Friday afternoon as they gathered for lunch. Miten Pandya, site manager, said they managed to rescue two labourers alive.

Commuter woes
I rushed to Kanjur Marg for an important meeting scheduled for 9am. I left Santa Cruz at 8am and reached the Eastern Express Highway at 8.30am. That’s where the ordeal began. There were about 25 street lamp poles within a distance of 300m, and I spent about 1-1.5 minutes at each. I called the traffic police control room for help. The sympathetic constable on the line told me a truck had overturned in Powai and a police crane was on the way. I wanted to turn right from the signal for Kanjur Marg (East). On reaching the signal, I realised that the cars which wanted to proceed to Powai were also blocking the right turn. I was delayed by almost 20 minutes. Some of them stopped to argue with the cop, who stood for an hour in heavy rainfall to manage the traffic. The cop said: “Forget rules; we also have to teach people common sense.” The traffic cops did a great job of clearing the Powai traffic.
—Sameer Buddha, resident of Santa Cruz, member of the Responsible Road Users Club

July 8, 2011 felt like a build-up to July 26, 2005. Bandra to MIDC in Andheri (East) normally takes a maximum of 45 minutes. But it took me two-and-a-half hours, from 9.30am to noon, to reach office on Friday. I witnessed many things: drivers who got out of their cars to pee on the highway in the rain; five high-end cars broke down because of the rain; a double-decker bus that got stuck under a height barrier pole and knocked it off; and locals who stood under the pole and laughed at the bus. Luckily, no one was hurt. But the icing on the cake was that the meeting I was rushing for was cancelled. The traffic police did a good job. Lesson to be learnt: Never crack a joke about the rains on Facebook before leaving for work.
—Cyril D’abreo, resident of Bandra, creative head of a music channel