Heavy rains disrupt train traffic beyond Kalyan in Mumbai; CM denies waterlogging in city

Photo/Ashish Raje

Heavy rains lashed parts of Mumbai amid an orange alert on Wednesday, leading to disruption of local train services beyond Kalyan in the adjoining Thane district, diversion of some express trains and cancellation of a few services between Mumbai and Pune.

However, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde claimed Mumbai has 110 low-lying areas and there was no waterlogging in the city and traffic remained smooth.

Shinde declared a holiday for all schools in Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Palghar districts for Thursday amid a heavy rainfall warning in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

The chief minister visited the disaster management cell in Mantralaya to review the flood situation in the state and directed officials to be on alert mode, PTI reported.

He was apprised of floods due to heavy rains in some areas in Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhdurg, Pune, Satara and Gadchiroli districts.

Shinde also visited the disaster control room of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation along with some ministers in the evening and took stock of the situation.

"Schools in Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Palghar have been given a holiday tomorrow as a precautionary measure," the chief minister told reporters.

Shinde said he spoke with all divisional commissioners and collectors and instructed them to send help to Raigad, battered by heavy rains since Tuesday night, from Panvel and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporations.

Also read: IN PHOTOS: Mumbai local trains affected after heavy rains

The CM credited the installation of 450 pumps by BMC in 450 areas and the drain cleaning work for the non-accumulation of water on a rainy day in Mumbai.

Amid an orange alert, predicting heavy to very heavy showers at some places, Mumbai received moderate to heavy rainfall till Wednesday evening.

Colaba and Santacruz observatories (indicators for the island city and suburbs) recorded 98.4 mm and 52.8 mm of rainfall, respectively, according to BMC's monsoon updates.

The island city, eastern suburbs and western suburbs received an average rainfall of 58.46 mm, 48.80 mm and 50.63 mm respectively between 8 am and 6 pm.

Reay Road area in Mumbai recorded the highest rainfall at 92.73 mm, followed by 89.67 mm rainfall at suburban Kandivali and 84.84 mm rainfall in Dahisar.

Mumbai saw 27 incidents of tree fall, three of short circuits and two incidents of house or part of house collapse since Wednesday morning.

A five-year-old girl was killed after the slab of the third floor of a ground-plus-five-storey building collapsed in suburban Bhandup in the wee hours, a civic official said.

He said the civic body distributed biscuits to passengers stranded at CSMT in south Mumbai due to train disruption.

Bus services of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking ran as per their proper routes and there was no diversion, a civic official said.

A civic official said the IMD Mumbai in its daily weather forecast predicted "heavy rainfall in the city and suburbs with a possibility of very heavy rainfall at a few places" in the next 24 hours.

The Central Railway's suburban train services on the Kalyan-Badlapur stretch in Thane district, adjoining Mumbai, were restored after seven hours on Wednesday, officials said. Services on the Kalyan-Kasara route were up and running after nearly three hours.

The Central Railway said it has diverted some mail and express trains via Diva-Panvel-Karjat route and Daund-Manmad route, besides short-termination and cancellation of a few trains between Mumbai and Pune.

The disruptions caused inconvenience to thousands of commuters. As trains crawled or stood still on tracks, several commuters were seen walking on rail lines to reach the nearest station.

In the morning, train services on the Panvel-Belapur Harbour Line route were affected due to a "point failure" at Panvel at 9.40 am. They were restored by 10 am, he said. (PTI)