NEW DELHI, July 8: Normal life was disrupted in the country’s economic capital Mumbai which saw heavy incessant rainfall triggering a waterlogging situation across multiple areas on Monday.
Roads in the city were water-logged, local train services were closed for most parts of the day as railway tracks were submerged and flight operations were suspended due to the low visibility on runways.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde reviewed the flood situation in Mumbai and the state. Talking to reporters, he blamed the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government for the rain woes claiming that it had failed to take any corrective measures for which the financial capital of the country was facing all the problems.
According to IMD, more showers are likely to hit the city and many parts of the state in the next 24 hours. The Met Department has issued an orange alert for Mumbai forecasting very heavy rainfall, a yellow alert in Maharashtra’s Pune, Ratnagiri, Raigad, Amravati and Nagpur districts and a red alert for the Sindhudurg district forecasting very heavy rains in the region in the next couple of days.
Local train movement in the Central region was affected while suburban trains were running up to 10 minutes late because water was above the track level between Matunga Road and Dadar.
To avoid the inconvenience to students, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) declared a holiday for the day for all the civic, government and private schools and colleges in the city.
“Mumbai received 101.8 mm rainfall in city and 14.1 mm in suburbs between 8 am and 6 pm. 40 calls received for trees and branches falls. No injury reported. One fire was reported in Santacruz due to short circuit; one woman who was injured died in hospital,” the BMC said in a statement.
Mumbai was pounded by relentless rain early this morning, with some areas receiving over 300 mm of rainfall in just six hours from 1 am to 7 am. The heavy downpour led to the diversion and cancellation of several trains, as reported by Central Railways. As a result, commuters faced daunting challenges getting to their workplaces, with widespread train delays affecting all parts of the city.
(Manas Dasgupta)
