Mumbai Rains: IMD gets it right, but city doesn't

The railway tracks too were waterlogged at certain places like Sion. Pic /Pradeep Dhivar

After having disappeared for a couple of weeks, rains returned to the city on Tuesday night, yet again, disrupting life and services for the first half of Wednesday. The showers will subside by Thursday, said the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) which had predicted Wednesday's downpour.

While the IMD got it right this time, the city yet again remained unprepared for heavy rainfall that began on Tuesday night. It had subsided by Wednesday evening though, making commuters' journey back home slightly less chaotic. During the morning rush hours, the city witnessed waterlogging at many places, along with delays in train schedules and changes in BEST routes. As many as 40 BEST routes had to be diverted across the city on Wednesday.

The BMC received 19 complaints of waterlogging after which seven roads were closed for vehicular traffic. These included Sion road number 24, Hindmata, Alankar Talkies to Johar Chowk, Pratiksha Nagar, Gandhi Market and National College.

Waterlogging at Vikhroli-Jogeshwari Link Road near Majas Depot. Pic/Sameer Markande

A partial house collapse was also reported apart from short-circuits at 14 places and six incidents of branches of trees falling off.

At Jansheva society in Dindoshi, Goregaon, there was a landslide after which civic officials provided temporary accommodation to 35 families at a nearby school.
On the Central Railways, there was waterlogging on the tracks around Sion and Thane which led to delays of about 25 to 30 minutes on this route, CR officials said. On the western line too, some delays were reported.

The Eastern Express Highway too saw a major traffic jam during the morning rush hours.

Heavy rain on Friday too

Heavy rainfall made it difficult for motorists to wade through the waterlogged Akurli Road in Kandivli. Pic/Satej Shinde

This time around, south Mumbai recorded more rainfall than the suburbs. While Santacruz station of the IMD recorded 84.2 mm of rainfall, Colaba station recorded 173.6 mm, the highest spell for this season in this region.

While the IMD has said that rainfall may see some reduction by Thursday, the possibility of a few sharp showers cannot be ruled out either. For the next 48 hours, the city will witness 'few spells of rain with heavy rain at isolated places in the city and suburbs', the IMD's forecast read.

"Latest satellite imagery showed a cloud mass in the Arabian sea near Mumbai which has caused intense rainfall in Mumbai the whole night," K S Hosalikar, director of IMD Mumbai, tweeted on Wednesday. Due to the cloud mass, the rains are expected to continue with similar intensity again on Friday.

Tweet talk

K S Hosalikar, director of IMD Mumbai:
'Latest satellite imagery showed a cloud mass in the Arabian sea near Mumbai which has caused intense rainfall in Mumbai the whole night'

19
No. of complaints of water-logging

07
No. of roads closed for vehicular traffic

14
No. of short-circuits reported

06
No. of incidents of tree branches falling

35
No. of families shifted after landslide

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