Mumbai Rains: City paralysed by heavy downpour; IMD issues 'orange' alert as more rainfall predicted

As Mumbai slept, torrential rains clobbered the city and surroundings all night, seriously disrupting road and rail traffic, besides hitting the movement of people manning essential services in the morning, officials said here on Wednesday.

According to IMD, till 8 a.m., south Mumbai (Colaba) recorded over 14.78 cm rain while the suburbs (Santacruz) notched over 28.64 cm rain from 8 p.m. on Tuesday, but most of it during the night, averaging to 36.03 cm for the city.

The IMD Mumbai has forecast another overcast and wet day with heavy rain as the civic authorities urged people to avoid stepping out unless necessary.

The Bombay High Court declared a holiday and certain high-profile matters like the bail pleas of Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik are now expected to come up on Thursday.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) which had summoned several persons from the glamour industry in connection with the drugs probe has said it will decide based on the ground situation.

The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Disaster Control said water-logging was reported from the traditional flood-prone areas of south and central Mumbai like Dadar, Wadala, Parel, Sion, Matunga, Worli, Mumbai Central, Kurla, Chunabhatti, Mazagaon, Masjid Bunder and Byculla.

Besides several areas in the suburbs like Goregaon, Malad, Dahisar, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Mulund experienced waterlogging, while the subways at Dahisar, Malad, Santacruz and Mankhurd were flooded.

Following an alarming increase in the water levels of the Mithi River, around 50 people in Kranti Nagar slums of Kurla were shifted to safer locations early Wednesday and sent back home after the situation eased.

The city woke up with many houses in low lying areas flooded, people wading around in knee-deep or higher waters, household articles either damaged or lost, as they waited for the water levels to subside.

The Central Railway has suspended suburban services from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to Thane and Vashi. Special mail/express trains have been rescheduled, said CR Chief Spokesperson Shivaji Sutar.

Similarly, submerged tracks compelled the Western Railway to suspend all suburban services between Churchgate to Andheri but after the situation improved, the services were run between Churchgate to Bandra, said WR Chief Spokesperson Sumit Thakur.

"Heavy rains have been reported from Mumbai and Thane suburbs in the last 12 hours with some places recording 150 mm plus rainfall," said K. S. Hosalikar, deputy director general of meteorology, IMD.

Mumbai`s public bus service operator BEST has cancelled or diverted its operations on at least 18 routes around the city.

There were at least eight big and small incidents of house collapses or wall crashes, a minor landslide in Jaifalwadi, Tardeo, around 40 complaints of electrical short-circuits, besides 12 incidents of trees or branches falling, but there were no casualties.

Besides the agony, the downpour has also brought cheers to Mumbaikars as the BMC reported that all the seven lakes supplying drinking water to Mumbai are virtually brimful.

For the first time in three years, of the total capacity of 14,47,363 million-litres, the lakes notched a record total storage of 14,30,152 million-litres (98.81 per cent), compared with 98.59 per cent in 2019 and 93.61 in 2018.

With the season-end bounty, civic officials say there is comfortable stock to last up to December 2021 and even longer if required with disciplined water usage.

Other parts of the coastal Konkan like Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Raigad, Thane and Palghar were also battered by heavy rains disrupting normal routine and resulting in floods in many towns and sea-side villages.

(With agency inputs)