Suburban train services of the Central Railway resume today; IMD predicts 'better weather' as rains to reduce in Mumbai in next few days

Mumbai: In a respite for Mumbaikars, rains have taken a break leading to a resumption of suburban train services of the Central Railway (CR) on Monday morning which had remained suspended for most of Sunday. [caption id=“attachment_6920791” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A suburban local train wades across submerged railway tracks following heavy monsoon rains in Mumbai. PTI[/caption] The Met department has also predicted, “better weather” in the coming days. In the wake of heavy rains on Saturday and Sunday and the weatherman predicting heavy showers on Monday too, the state government had declared holiday for schools in Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad and Nashik districts. In a relief for Mumbaikars rejoining offices on Monday after the wet weekend, train services on the Main line and Harbour line of the Central Railway (CR), which remained suspended for most of Sunday, have been restored. “Mumbai, Central Railway’s all suburban services are operational except Ambernath to Karjat,” the Central Railway tweeted on Monday morning. A day after issuing “extremely heavy rainfall” warning, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted “very heavy rainfall in some isolated places” in Mumbai for Monday and Tuesday. The services on Western Railway (WR) are also running as per schedule. In good news for rain-battered citizens, weather would be comparatively better Monday onwards compared to the weekend, as there will be few heavy spells of showers over Mumbai and neighbouring districts, according to IMD. “The low-pressure area in North India brought extremely heavy rainfall over Mumbai and some neighbouring districts over the weekend. It had put administration on high alert for rescue operations and relief measures,” said the official. As per IMD norms, more than 204.5 mm rainfall in 24 hours is considered “extremely heavy”. Suburban Bandra in Mumbai recorded 412 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours ended at 8:30 am on Monday. “Bandra recorded precipitation of 412 mm in the 24 hours,” said the official. Areas like Mazgaon in south Mumbai received 142 mm rainfall in the same period, followed by Ghansoli gaon (114.6 mm) and Chirak nagar (100 mm), said the official. As rains pummelled Mumbai since Friday night, at least 12 major outstation trains got stuck, some for hours, on water-logged tracks on Mumbai’s outskirts on Sunday. Some of the trains stranded were Duronto Express, Punjab Mail, Devgiri Express and Vidarbha Express. The railways have made parallel travel arrangements for the stranded passengers while some services were either short-terminated or restored. Torrential rains have clobbered large stretches of Maharashtra in the last two days. Many areas in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) comprising Palghar, Thane and Raigad districts experienced water-logging on Sunday, prompting various agencies to launch rescue operations to evacuate stranded people. Flood-like situation also prevailed in some areas in Nashik and Pune districts on Sunday. Rains have taken a break since Sunday evening.