Heavy rain brought life to a crawl in Navi Mumbai on Monday, exposing the city’s recurring monsoon troubles. Among the worst-hit was the Turbhe police station, where water seeped inside the premises despite a retaining wall built earlier this year. Officers continued to work in wet uniforms, highlighting the urgent need for a new police station building.

Senior Police Inspector Aabasaheb Patil admitted the situation has become a yearly ordeal. “Every monsoon, we face the same problem. The wall built outside helped a little, but only a new building will solve this permanently,” he said. A constable, on the condition of anonymity, added, “We attend to citizens with our clothes drenched. It is not easy, but duty cannot stop for rain.”

The downpour also caused severe waterlogging across several nodes. The Ulwe-Belapur stretch near the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport was submerged, forcing motorists to push stalled vehicles through knee-deep water. Tulsi Sahu, a commuter from Ulwe, said, “It took me more than two hours to cover a 20-minute stretch. If this is happening before the airport is even operational, I fear what the future holds.”