Extremely heavy rainfall lashes Mumbai, surrounding districts; waterlogging disrupts rail, road traffic

Mumbai and surrounding Thane, Navi Mumbai, Palghar and Raigad districts received extremely heavy rains on Saturday, disrupting normal life. One person was electrocuted in Thane while another suffered serious injuries after the roof of a bakery collapsed in Mumbra in the district. Schools and colleges were shut in Palghar district amid heavy downpour. Bodies of two girls out of the four who went missing at Navi Mumbai’s Pandavkada waterfall were found on Saturday evening. [caption id=“attachment_7106061” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Commuters hold hands and walk past flooded train tracks in Mumbai. AP[/caption] Waterlogging was reported in various parts of the city, leading to traffic woes.“Overnight heavy rains in Mumbai and its adjoining areas has led to water-logging at some paces, which has affected the flow of traffic, especially in parts of Malad, Andheri and Dahisar,” a senior official of the BMC told PTI. Water also accumulated on railway tracks, causing a disruption in local train services. Trains on various sections of the Central and Harbour lines were cancelled, only to be restored late in the evening. Services between Kurla and Sion, Kurla and Chunabhatti and Kurla and CSMT were suspended due to rise in water level and high tide for some time during the day. Flight operations at the Mumbai airport were not severely impacted, with only a 15 to 30 minutes delay reported. Mumbai Police advised people to exercise caution. “As per the weather forecast, intense spells of rain likely to continue in the next 4 hours and heavy to very heavy rainfall in the next 24 hours. We request Mumbaikars to take adequate precautions and ensure safety. Dial 100 in case of any emergency,” it tweeted. In Thane, rain water enter houses and also swept away vehicles, even as the flooding got the bus and auto-rickshaw services to a halt. In Mumbai, the season’s highest tide spewed back 15 metric tonnes of garbage on the city’s shores. As a very high tide and the heavy rain wreaked havoc in the city, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Corporation issued an advisory asking Mumbai residents to not venture into the sea or in water-logged areas. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted that heavy rainfall is expected in the next 24 hours, prompting the city’s civic authorities to declare a holiday for schools and colleges on 4 August. IMD issued a red alert for Palghar, Thane, Raigad, Nasik, Pune and Satara districts on Sunday.