Heavy rains in Mumbai; train, road traffic hit hard

Mumbai: Heavy rains during the night and on Monday morning in Mumbai and its outskirts inundated low-lying areas, delayed trains and slowed down vehicular movement on roads.

Several local train services, considered the lifeline of Mumbai, were cancelled or short-terminated as a temporary bamboo structure erected for civil work fell on an overhead wire near the Marine Lines station on the Western line, an official said.

The vehicular movement from suburbs towards south Mumbai and the Bandra-Kurla Complex, where several corporate houses and private companies are located, was slow due to the incessant showers. There was waterlogging at several pockets in the suburbs, due to which trains were running slow on the Central line as well, another official said.

In view of the heavy rains in Palghar district of Maharashtra and a rail track suffering damage near Lonavala hill station in Pune, 17 long-distance trains of the Western Railway (WR) and more than 10 of the Central Railway (CR) were cancelled in the morning, the official said.

Due to submergence of rail tracks at a few places in Palghar, some trains were also short-terminated, a WR official said. A goods train derailed in the early hours of Monday in the Western Ghat section between Karjat and Lonavala, affecting the movement of several long-distance trains going towards Pune and western Maharashtra, a CR official said.

Some trains were also short-terminated and others diverted via Kalyan-Igatpuri-Manmad section. The shuttle train services between Mumbai and Pune were also affected, the official said. Thousands of state government employees and private staff were not able to go to work, a government official said.

A citizen who uses the Western Express Highway regularly said a number of potholes on the road posed problems for commuters, adding that it exposed the poor quality of repair works done by the civic body.