Mumbai comes to standstill due to incessant rain; railway, road traffic thrown out of gear, 52 flights cancelled

Mumbai: Mumbai was paralysed on Tuesday by the incessant rain, which left several areas of the financial capital waterlogged and claimed 18 lives in a wall collapse in a northern suburb. Heavy rains lashing Mumbai since Sunday have thrown rail, air and road traffic out of gear, with several trains and flights being cancelled. With IMD forecast of heavy rains for Tuesday, the authorities declared a holiday in the city and adjoining regions, asking people to avoid stepping out of their houses. [caption id=“attachment_6919051” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Commuters wade through a waterlogged street during heavy monsoon rain at Ghatkopar, Mumbai. PTI[/caption] 21 people were killed and over 50 injured in a wall collapse in the northern suburb of Malad in Mumbai early Tuesday following heavy rains. Rescue workers were on the verge of bringing out a 10 -year-old girl trapped in the debris after the wall collapsed. In Pune, six labourers were killed and three injured after a wall collapsed in Ambegaon area late Monday night. Wall collapse in Thane district early Tuesday killed three people, officials said. Altogether 54 flights were diverted and 52 cancelled at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport due to inclement weather. A SpiceJet flight from Jaipur skid and overshot the main runway while landing at the Mumbai airport amid heavy rains on Monday, although none of the passengers were hurt in the incident, an airline spokesperson said. A rescue operation is underway in Malad, where a wall collapsed, killing 18 persons. Fire brigade found a woman and child alive in the debris, with help of life sensing equipment and sniffer dogs, the BMC tweeted. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis visited the BMC Disaster Management control room and took stock of the situation in Mumbai with civic officials. Fadnavis reviewed issues like railway traffic, road traffic movement, and areas where more focus and assistance is required, with BMC and Mumbai Police officials. “As a precautionary measure and as per IMD advisory on heavy rains, we declared holiday Tuesday,” Fadnavis said. “We need to remain alert for the next two days,” he added. As rains continued to lash the city, water logging was reported at Airport Colony, Vakola Junction, Postal colony, near Chunabhatti Railway station and Vakola road, a BMC official said. Over 1,000 people were evacuated from Kranti Nagar, Kurla, to prevent any untoward incidents due to an overflowing Mithi river, he said. A wall collapsed on hutments in Pimpripada area of Malad East due to heavy rainfall. A senior NDRF official told reporters at the site that his team searched the debris with advanced equipment and also by the canine search for bodies. The official said that around two am, a compound wall in Pimpripada collapsed, trapping people living in shanties adjacent to the wall. “Our team of National Disaster Response Force along with sniffer dog reached the site of the incident immediately after receiving the information. Besides, a team of fire brigade and local police also reached the spot and took control of the situation,” a senior NDRF official said. The injured were taken to Jogeshwari Trauma Hospital and Kandivali-based Shatabdi Hospital, a civic official said. In the incident in Kalyan, the wall of an Urdu school behind Durgai Fort collapsed around one am, killing three people in the hutments adjacent. Heavy rains also saw a joint evacuation operation in suburban Kurla with the NDRF, Navy and fire brigade shifting some 1,000 people to temporary shelters, a Navy official said. A Navy team encountered extreme waterlogging and abandoned vehicles, preventing their own vehicles from reaching the site, the official added