Rain takes break in Mumbai after morning showers

Mumbai, Sept 15 (PTI) Intermittent rains since midnight inundated several areas across Mumbai, affecting traffic on roads and local train as well as monorail services on Monday.

Amid rains, a monorail train came to an abrupt halt on tracks between the Antop Hill Bus Depot and GTBN station in Wadala due to a "technical snag", following which all 17 passengers onboard were rescued, officials said, adding that it was the second such incident in less than a month.

The rain activity reduced in the afternoon.

In the last 24 hours, the Colaba observatory in south Mumbai recorded 134.4 mm rainfall, while the Santacruz observatory in the suburbs registered 73.2 mm downpour.

As per the monsoon report by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the island city recorded an average of 32.77 mm rainfall in ten hours between 8 am and 6 pm. Eastern and western suburbs logged 31 mm and 37.59 mm of rainfall, respectively.

At 84 mm, the Mankhurd area in the eastern suburbs recorded the highest rainfall till 6 PM, followed by Shivaji Nagar. Charkop and Borivli in the western suburbs reported 78 mm and 74 mm of rainfall, respectively, during this period. The area around CSMT in south Mumbai recorded the highest 51 mm rainfall in the island city.

The downpour at midnight was accompanied by lightning and thunder. On Monday morning, King's Circle, Lalbaug, Worli, Dadar, Parel, Kurla, and other low-lying areas were marooned. The water-filled potholes further worsened the road traffic conditions.

The water-filled potholes further worsened the road traffic conditions.

Interestingly, some portion of the road on the JJ Flyover was also submerged, and an underpass built at Worli to access the coastal road also went under water.

The BMC claimed that the overnight downpour, coupled with a high tide at 5.51 AM caused water-logging.

Rain-related incidents like the falling of a tree, a short circuit, a house collapse, and a landslide at a housing society in Powai were recorded. Fortunately, nobody was injured, the civic body said.

Commuters of local trains complained of water accumulation on the tracks at Dadar, Kurla, and Bandra stations, delaying the services on Mumbai’s lifeline by 10 to 15 minutes.

Simultaneously, the stalling of a goods train between Badlapur and Ambernath railway stations due to wheel slip around 12.55 pm compounded the woes of Central Railway commuters.

For the next 24 hours, the IMD has predicted "cloudy sky with heavy to very heavy rain" at isolated places in the city and suburbs with a possibility of thunder and lightning, besides gusty winds at a speed of 30-40 kmph, a civic official said. PTI KK GK NSK