Mumbai: Normal life in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) was hit on Friday, as rains pounded India’s commercial capital and neighbouring Thane and Raigad districts.
While half a dozen incidents of drowning were reported from the MMR, firemen attended to more than 50 calls of uprooting of trees and several incidents of slab collapses following overnight rains.
The rains brought back the memories of the July 26, 2005 deluge in Mumbai - and a sizeable population preferred to stay indoors.
Weathermen had forecast heavy to very heavy rains for Saturday - an indication of Mumbai heading for a wet weekend.
At the time of going to Press, several places were marooned - like the Evershine City in Vasai and Patilwadi in Kopri in Thane City.
As water inundated low-lying areas traffic movement - be it road or rail - which is the lifeline of Mumbai, was disrupted. While buses of the BEST and private transport were affected because of traffic snarls - the rail traffic of the Central Railway’s main and harbour line and Western Railway reported delays as water flooded the tracks at some places.
At several points along the Western Express Highway, Eastern Express Highway, Swami Vivekananda Marg, Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg, traffic slowed to a crawl. Traffic was also slow on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
If one goes by the average of the data from the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Revenue and Forests department of Maharashtra Government, the MMR - which comprises the Mumbai City district, Mumbai Suburban district and parts of Thane and Raigad districts, received over 100 mm to 150 mm rainfall.
All the lakes supplying water to Mumbai has shown good increase - and one good news is that the Tulsi Lake located inside the Sanjay Gandhi National Park here has started overflowing. The other lakes - Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Bhatsa, Vihar, Modak Sagar, Tansa, too have shown increase in water levels.
Western Railway services between Vasai-Nalasopara had to be suspended for several hours as water rose over the tracks. As far as Central Railway was concerned, there was water-logging between Mumbra and Diva stations, affected the traffic between Thane and Kalyan. Trains on all the routes were delayed. Trains services to Guajarat were also delayed because of the water on the tracks.
Incidents of drowning were reported from Gawanipada, Powai, PNG Colony-Mankhurd, Bhandup.
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