Mumbai: Heavy rains pummelled Mumbai and adjoining areas on Tuesday, disrupting rail, road and air services, and throwing normal life out of gear. As the financial capital stopped in its tracks, no respite was in sight as the MeT department forecast “extremely heavy rainfall” in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Here is all you need to know about the Mumbai rains:
- More than 100mm of average rainfall in Mumbai since the morning coupled with a high tide sent Mumbai down under, with several low lying areas waterlogged. “There have been reports of waterlogging in Dadar, Andheri, Worli, Kurla, Parel and Sakinaka, among other areas,” said a BMC official.
- Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered all offices to let their employees leave early. Schools have also been shut. The National Disaster Management Authority and other authorities have asked Mumbaiikars to stay at home and move to a higher place if possible as the situation could get worse.
- At least six people have been injured as trees fell on them after the heavy downpour. Six cases of wall collapse, 23 cases of trees falling and 16 incidents of short circuit have been reported so far. Officials, however, claim that no untoward incident has taken place and the situation is under control.
- The Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport has been shut for all landings due to low visibility. Most of the flights are delayed and are being diverted. Air India has confirmed that most of their flights to or from Mumbai are delayed. "Heavy rains and strong winds have drastically reduced visibility leading to diversions and go arounds even though the main runway is open," a Mumbai airport official said.
- Train services have also been crippled due to the rains as several stations and tracks in the city have become submerged. Western Railways said that most of the long distance trains are held up at Mumbai Central. Water reached up to 200mm above rail level at some places on local lines, which is why services had to be suspended, it tweeted. The Central Railway-run harbour line, which connects CSMT to Panvel, remained suspended since 11:30 am, railways officials said.
- Traffic across most of the city has come to a complete halt. The Bandra-Worli Sea Link has been closed for traffic due to visibility dipping to zero. Police have advised that it would perhaps be safer to travel on foot rather than in cars if the tyre pressure gets too low. Long traffic snarls have also been witnessed on the Eastern Freeway, Sion-Panvel highway, LBS Marg, Dr B R Ambedkar road and the Western Express highway.
- The MeT department has upgraded the status of the weather system, which has brought heavy showers over the Mumbai region, has been upgraded from “well marked low pressure” to “depression”. It means it is set to bring more rains. Hence, we have predicted an extremely heavy rainfall," the weatherman said.
- The weatherman said there is an upper air circulation over south Rajasthan owing to which there is cloudiness over the west coast. There is also a low-pressure area over south east of Odisha. Both these systems are acting together indicating a lot of rainfall activity.
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