Rains pick up again in Mumbai; local train services affected

A day after heavy showers battered Mumbai, the rain intensity reduced briefly on Monday morning and picked up momentum again, leading to water-logging at some places and disrupting local train services, officials said.

On Sunday, 30 people were killed in the metropolis in rain-related incidents, including 19 in the Mahul area of Chembur where a retaining wall collapsed on some houses after a landslide.

On Monday, no fresh death was reported, an official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

However, after a brief spell of reduced intensity, the rains picked up the pace again, causing inundation in some areas.

Local train services of the Central Railway were affected due to water-logging on tracks between Vikhroli and Bhandup following heavy showers in parts of the suburbs, CR’s chief spokesperson Shivaji Sutar said.

The suburban train services were suspended in that section of the mainline from 10.35 am to 10.50 am as a precautionary measure, he said.

”Trains are being run at a cautious speed between Kanjurmarg and Vikhroli stations due to heavy rain,” Sutar said.

The station yard in neighboring Thane was also water-logged and as a result, trains were running slow, railway sources said. In the Kasara Ghat section, located about 130 km from Mumbai, a mudslide occurred on one of the three rail lines early Monday morning, Sutar said.

Traffic was affected only on the down line due to the mudslide, but trains were running on the middle and up lines, according to the Central Railway.

The eastern suburbs of Mumbai recorded the highest 90.65 mm rainfall in the 24-hour period ending at 8 am on Monday, as compared to 48.88 mm rainfall in the island city and 51.89 mm rainfall in western suburbs, a BMC official said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) earlier issued an ”orange alert” for Mumbai on Monday, predicting ”heavy to very heavy rain at few places”.

According to BMC officials, there is a forecast of moderate to heavy rain/thundershowers in the city and suburbs with the possibility of very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall in isolated places.

Alerts by the IMD are color-coded from green to red. A ‘green’ alert stands for ‘no warning’: no action needs to be taken by the authorities, and the forecast is of light to moderate rain. A ‘red’ alert stands for ”warning”, and asks authorities to ”take action”. An ‘orange’ alert indicates that the authorities are expected to “be prepared”.

According to civic officials, bus services of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) were running normally.

On Sunday evening, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray took stock of the preparedness by various government agencies to tackle any emergency.

Thackeray had directed the agencies to remain more alert and asked authorities to keep a watch on landslide-prone areas and dilapidated buildings.