Heavy rains choke Mumbai, schools shut; train services affected

Mangalore Today News Network

Mumbai, June 19, 2015: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Mumbai’s apex civic body, has issued an alert asking residents to stay inside their houses and not to send their children to schools in the wake of heavy rain forecast on Friday.

 

 

According to media reports, the BMC issued alerts after heavy rains lashed the city last night causing severe water-logging and traffic snarls at several locations and hitting train services in Mumbai.

The city may witness one or two spells of heavy rain today too, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The IMD has warned of heavy rainfall in Mumbai, coastal Konkan and other parts over the next two days accompanied by strong winds touching 60 knots and very rough seas.

In the wake of IMD’s weather forecast for today, the BMC has cautioned people of high tide at around 2.30 pm today, asking them not to venture outside unnecessarily. The warning from the civic body came hours after heavy rains hit the suburban railway network – the life line of the city – hard causing water-logging on railway tracks, preventing office-goers from reaching their destinations.

Heavy downpour last night led to suspension of train services between the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and the Kurla suburb on the crucial Central Railway line.

While the Central Railway (CR) and Harbour Line and Western Railway (WR) managed to start a few services for the day in the early hours, they were delayed and later suspended in the city, rail officials and the BMC Disaster Cell said.

However, services continued on the mainland beyond Thane, Karjat-Kasara and Panvel sections of CR and beyond Vasai on WR.

Long distance trains on all sections have been severely hit with trains halted at various stations en route on the Mumbai to Gujarat, New Delhi, Nagpur, Pune and Goa routes.

Meanwhile, heavy water-logging and flooding has been reported at various locations around the city including Dadar, Parel, Byculla, Mazagaon, Mahim, Santacruz, Juhu, Vile Parle, Worli, Sion, Chunabhatti, Andheri, Kurla, Borivali, Dahisar, Jogeshwari and other areas preventing movement of road traffic.

Mumbai Mayor Snehal Ambekar said over 100 pumps are being operated to flush out the excess waters flooding the city and advised people not to ventures to beaches or near seashores.

Around 250 special buses have been deployed to ferry commuters who have been stranded in different parts of the city as the suburban train services have collapsed.

The city received 60.34 mm rainfall, while the eastern and western suburbs received 57.48 mm and 64.92 mm rainfall, respectively between 8 am to 8 pm on Thursday.

The relative humidity was 93 percent at Colaba and Santacruz IMD stations.

The city has also seen high tides in the last four days, with the level going up to 4.5 metres on Thursday afternoon. At least 19 trees fell due to rains. Of these, 11 were in the island city, four each in the western and eastern suburbs.

 

Courtesy: Zeenews