'Orange' alert as Mumbai sees heavy overnight rains

Moderate to heavy rains lashed Mumbai overnight and the weather department has issued an ‘orange’ alert, predicting more heavy showers in the city on Thursday, as per the local civic body.

An official from the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking said some of their bus routes were diverted at Sion due to waterlogging at around 4.45 am.

The routes were restored at around 8 am and the bus services were running normally in the city, the official said.

Rain intensity increased after midnight on Thursday and some areas like Dadar, Mahim, Khar, Matunga and Kurla recorded downpour in the range of 40 mm to 70 mm in the last 12 hours, as per rainfall data of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The island city, eastern and western suburbs recorded an average rainfall of 54.28 mm, 48.85 mm and 51.07 mm, respectively, in the 24-hour period ending at 8 am on Thursday, a BMC spokesperson said.

He said the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Mumbai centre has in its ‘district forecast and warnings’ on Wednesday evening issued an ‘orange’ alert for the city, forecasting “heavy to very heavy rainfall” at a few places.

In its ‘daily weather forecast’ for the metropolis, the IMD Mumbai has predicted “heavy rainfall in the city and suburbs with very heavy rainfall likely at isolated places,” the official said.

Road traffic in the city was normal during the morning rush hours, with no report of any major waterlogging, the civic official said.

Railway authorities said local trains were running normally on both the Central Railway and Western Railway routes, but some commuters claimed the suburban services were delayed.