Mumbai gets first spell of heavy rains; traffic affected

After a delay of several days, the first spell of heavy rains lashed the metropolis and its outskirts Friday morning, slowing down road and rail traffic. The Met office has predicted moderate rainfall with a few spells of heavy showers in the financial capital in the next 24 hours.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in the last five hours, its weather station has recorded an average rainfall of 43.23 mm in the island city, 64.14 mm in eastern suburbs and 78.21 mm in western suburbs. The civic body said the flow of road traffic has been reported to be slow, while suburban services of the Central and Western Railways were running behind schedule.

"The city has recorded moderate rainfall in the last few hours. So far, no untoward incident or major water-logging has been reported at the Disaster Management Cell," a senior civic official said. Meanwhile, heavy showers brought cheers to civic officials who said they will help in improving stock in reservoirs supplying water to the metropolis.

Since monsoon has been playing truant, the civic administration has been forced to use reserve stock of water from its lakes to fulfil the needs of Mumbaikars. Suburban train services, considered Mumbai's lifeline, were running late by 10 to 15 minutes, said the officer.

According to a BMC spokesperson, due to the ongoing metro rail work and water-logging at some places, a few buses of civic transport undertaking BEST were diverted from their regular routes. Heavy traffic jam affected the movement of vehicles on the Mulund-Sion stretch of the Eastern Express Highway, he said, adding the BMC had to close a busy subway in suburban Andheri due to water-logging.

The Thane railway station witnessed water-logging on tracks and the local civic administration has been alerted about it by the Central Railway (CR). "Water entered on tracks from the city area. The TMC (Thane Municipal Corporation) has been informed. The TMC is sending officials to check and do the needful. Our officers are there to help," CR chief spokesperson Sunil Udasi said.

The Western Railway, in a statement said, several teams of officials along with RPF jawans have been deployed at different locations to ensure smooth operation of trains. "Tracks and signals are working well without any failure. Train operation is normal. Today we received a few mail express trains late at Surat from Vadodara due to heavy rains in Vadodara division," said the statement.

-PTI