Rain batters Mumbai: Flooded roads, rail tracks leave commuters stranded

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Heavy rains battered Mumbai and its suburban areas causing traffic jams on water-logged streets and disrupting local train services on Wednesday, following a dry spell for more than a week.

Weather officials warned that there will be intermittent rain with heavy showers in city and suburbs in the next 24 hours.

Commuters faced trouble as waterlogging on major arterial roads and railway tracks was reported after the heavy rainfall since Tuesday night. People were seen walking through knee-deep water on roads as commuters waited to get on to crowded trains on several stations where tracks were flooded after the rains.

Severe water-logging was reported in areas like Sion, Dadar, Parel, Hindmata, Kurla, Chembur, Khar, Malad, King Circle and Matunga.

According to the traffic police, traffic was moving slower than usual on many roads due to waterlogging. Commuters, however, complained that traffic on the southbound road towards Sion near Gandhi Market was not moving at all. The travel time on Western Express Way was also reported to be more than two hours between the stretches from Goregaon to Andheri.

Waterlogging in Kurla area of Mumbai after haevy rains ( Kunal Patil/HT photo )

A part of a road caved in at Gulmohar Road in Juhu which was closed after that. Commuters complained there was no diversion specified for the closure of the main arterial road which connects SV Road to Link Road.

Another cause for traffic jam at Santacruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR) was a broken-down truck in the middle of the road. SV Road from Khar towards Bandra Railway Colony was closed due to waterlogging. Traffic police had issued diversions for vehicles and asked people to travel from Linking Road towards Mahim.

At least eight people were injured after three cars collided with each other in Andheri due to low visibility. New agency Asian News International tweeted photos of the mangled cars after the accident.

The Brihan Mumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) diverted its buses on nearly 45 routes in seven areas, including Gandhi Market at Kings Circle, due to waterlogged roads.

The Central Railway’s local train services were operating with a delay of 20 minutes due to waterlogging between Sion and Kurla railway stations. Services on Western Railway were also operational with a 10-minute delay.

Troubled Mumbaikars took to Twitter to lash out at authorities for its lack of preparedness during monsoon. They also complained to BMC about water-logging in their areas and that de-watering pumps had failed to flush out water.

Widespread heavy rain was recorded in Mumbai and its suburbs between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. South Mumbai recorded 171.8mm of rain while the suburbs received 58.6mm from 11.30pm on Tuesday to 5.30am on Wednesday.

According to the weather department, 15.6mm to 64.4mm of rain is considered ‘moderate’, 64.5mm to 115.5mm ‘heavy’, 115.6mm to 204.4mm ‘very heavy’ and more than 204.5mm ‘extremely heavy’.

The weather bureau issued a Nowcast warning at 12.30am on Wednesday about intense rain over the next four hours. Before that, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast isolated heavy spells during the night.

The city will witness a high tide around 4.31pm of about 3.74 meters.

Mumbai recorded its second-highest July rain in a day on July 2 in 44 years after the flood on July 26, 2005, that killed more than 1,000 people. It was the highest with 944mm in 24-hours after the torrential downpour, especially in the suburbs. More than 30 people were killed after heavy rain brought a wall crashing down on shanties built on a hill slope in Malad, a western suburb of Mumbai.