The Andheri subway has been closed to traffic seven times this week alone, and a total of 10 times in July, due to waterlogging after moderate to heavy spells of rain. On Wednesday, the subway was closed to traffic twice — from 8.23 am to 9.01 am, when the area recorded 47.2 mm of rainfall, and from 1 pm to 1.19 pm, when the area recorded 74 mm, according to information provided by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The Andheri subway is a crucial east-west connector in the western suburbs and a known flooding hotspot every monsoon. With the subway inundated with up to 2.5 feet of water on Wednesday and closed to traffic, the traffic police diverted the east-west traffic in this area via the Gokhale bridge, causing a detour of approximately 1.5 km for commuters, and via the Balasaheb Thackeray flyover with a detour of roughly 3 km from the Andheri subway.

Frequent closures of the subway due to waterlogging also cause traffic jams and slow-moving traffic along the SV Road and the Western Express Highway in the Andheri and Jogeshwari areas. Abhijeet Kilpady, a resident of Goregaon and owner of a business in Mahim, said, “It takes me 35 minutes to travel between Andheri and Mahim every day. This week, the average travel time taken from Andheri to Mahim has gone up to one hour. On Monday morning, the entire area near the Andheri subway was waterlogged. The tyres of my car were completely submerged. I had to give my vehicle for a round of services.”