Heavy rains pound city, road & rail traffic take a hit

Torrential rains pummeled Mumbai in the last 24 hours, with the suburban train services and road traffic taking a hit.

According to then Regional Meteorological Centre, the city received an average of 59.66 mm of rain on Saturday. South Mumbai witnesses 56mm, eastern suburbs received 67mm and western region was drenched in 56mm in the last 24 hours.

Weathermen have further predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall in the next 24 hours in the entire Konkan region, including Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane and Panvel.

"Rains will continue to have a strong presence over Mumbai and surrounding areas for the next two days. The shower trend will continue in Mumbai as well as other parts of Maharashtra and Goa," an IMD official said.

As per the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) disaster management control room officials, suburban services of Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) were reported to be running late by 20-25 minutes.

Water, water everywhere

Heavy rains continued to lash the city for the third consecutive day, causing water-logging, major traffic snarls and disruption of the suburban train services.

According to the civic record, 17 areas in the city experienced water-logging. Low lying areas such as Dadar, Parel, Sion, Matunga, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Bandra, Vakola, Jogeshwari, Andheri, Malad, Kandivli and parts of Dahisar witnessed one to two-feet deep water blocks.

Severe disruptions, coupled with bumper-to-bumper commute, were also seen in certain stretches of the Western and Eastern Express Highways.

"There was water-logging on tracks in areas such as Kurla, Chunabhatti, Bhandup, Dockyard, Sion, Mahim and Matunga, which affected train services," a senior railway official added.

Civic officials claimed that the 4.34 m high tide at the Mumbai coastline played a cardinal role in causing water-logging in these areas.

Water-logging was also anticipated post-10pm as a high-tide of 3.90m was to hit Mumbai amid heavy downpour.

56 trees collpase

Around 56 trees fell in the day, injuring one person, apart from damaging three private vehicles.

Kandivli resident Shobhana Patel (47) sustained head injury after she was hit by a branch of a collapsing tree in the Sahyadri Nagar area. She was rushed to a nearby private hospital and shifted to the civic-run Kasturbha hospital after preliminary treatment. Her condition was reported to be stable.

Meanwhile, trees damaged three cars in Byculla, Dadar and Chembur.