Mumbai Rains: City tries to pick up the pieces after heavy showers

Many trees fell in south Mumbai due to the heavy rain and wind. Pics /Shadab Khan

The rain water receded, and Mumbai struggled to get back to normal on Thursday. Out of 697 trees that fell since Tuesday, 477 were in the southern parts of Mumbai. The fallen trees and branches have been pushed to the side and most roads were opened by Thursday evening. However, the repairing of the fallen retaining wall of Hanging Gardens and road cave-in at Malabar Hill will take more days. Two deaths were also reported in separate incidents across the city in past two days.

There were 66 incidents of short circuit across the city in the past two days, of which 52 were from the southern parts of Mumbai. Shambhu Soni, 38, died due to electric shock in Mile Stone society, Anand Nagar, Dahisar East on Wednesday, at 9.30 am. A Central Railway employee, Sanjeet Kumar, 27, died of electric shock near Saibaba mandir, Masjid bandar early morning on Thursday.

The Disaster Management Department of the BMC received complaints of the collapse of 697 trees (and big branches) from Tuesday. Out of these, 477 trees were between Colaba and Mahim. At least 77 trees fell in the Eastern suburbs and 143 trees fell in the Western suburbs. Ken D'Souza, a Kurla resident, was injured in a tree fall near Glip Parera Chawl at Kurla West around 5.30 pm on Wednesday. He was admitted to Cooper Hospital.

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The flooded grounds of Islam Gymkhana at Marine Drive

Officials speak

"Few trees fell in the ward compared to other south wards. All roads have been opened after they were chopped and kept aside," said Chakrapani Alle, assistant commissioner, C ward. "Many roads were flooded and more than 250 trees were damaged in the past two days. All the trees have been removed by Thursday evening. The rain was unprecedented and there wasn't any other reason of waterlogging," said Chanda Jadhav, assistant commissioner of A ward. With the help of Mumbai Fire Brigade and National Disaster Rescue Force, BMC also rescued 80 passengers stranded in four trains between Kurla and CSMT on Wednesday. The Disaster Management Cell received 3,202 calls.

Pumping water out

The BMC claimed to pump out water enough for more than two Tulsi lakes in the past four days from the city. There are six pumping stations on the coast side which pump out flood water into the sea when the flood gates of nullahs are closed during high tide. According to the BMC, one pump can throw out about 6,000 litres of water per second. The total of 43 pumps in all stations pumped out 17,145 million litres of water in four days, from August 3 to 6. The capacity of Tulsi lake is 8,046 litres.

Also Read: Mumbai Rains: Part of dilapidated building collapses in Mira-Bhayandar

Light to moderate rainfall today

As per IMD Mumbai's forecast, the city will see moderate rain activity on Friday. The IMD warning shifted from Yellow to green code for Friday, indicating only moderate rain. "As per latest satellite and radar observations, the suburbs are very likely to receive light to moderate rain with occasional intense spells with the possibility of gusty winds reaching 60-70kmph. Localised inundation and flooding of low lying areas is expected while there is possibility of danger to very old buildings and loose structures, falling of trees, etc," the IMD statement says, adding that warnings have been issued for fishermen.

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