‘Extremely’ heavy rainfall hits normal life in parts of Mumbai; more to come, says IMD

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Incessant and heavy rains since Monday night threw normal life in parts of Mumbai out of gear on Tuesday with the city witnessing severe waterlogging at nearly 20 streets and locations, including arterial roads, roads leading to city highways along with low-lying areas of Kurla, Sion, Chembur, Matunga, Antop Hill, Wadala and Andheri, causing delay in local train services and disrupting vehicular traffic.
The residents of state capital witnessed a heavy downpour starting Monday evening with 277.5 mm, which is extremely heavy rainfall, being received in a 33-hour-period ending at 5:30 pm on Tuesday. Of the total rainfall, 55 per cent, i.e., 153.3 mm rain, categorised as very heavy rain, was recorded in nine hours on Tuesday. As many as 13 weather stations in the city recorded over 100 mm of rain during the period. The highest amount of rainfall was recorded in Vikhroli at 164 mm, followed by 145 mm at Chembur station.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) indicated that the heavy rainfall will continue till the end of this week in Mumbai, the Konkan region along with ghat areas of Madhya Maharashtra.
The heavy rainfall also came as a first challenge for the newly elected BJP-Eknath Shinde camp alliance a day after it won the trust vote in the state legislative assembly.
After reviewing the flood situation, Chief Minister Shinde asked the administrations of six districts to prepare for shifting residents from flood-prone areas if needed. Shinde also visited the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) disaster control room and appreciated the work done by the civic body at Hindmata and Gandhi Market— the two chronic flooding spots. The BMC had constructed two holding ponds at the spots to store the excess flood water during heavy rainfall. The holding ponds were one of the key projects of former state environment minister Aaditya Thackeray.
Talking to the media, Shinde said, “There are 25 spots in the city where any incident of waterlogging can disrupt local train services. Therefore, I have instructed BMC commissioner IS Chahal to keep an alternate mode of transport available — State Transport and BEST buses for passengers who may get inconvenienced. The citizens can then head to their homes in these buses without any delay and without being forced to spend a bomb on private transportation.”
Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said, “Both the CM and I are round-the-clock monitoring the situation arising due to heavy rains… NDRF teams have been stationed in all flood-sensitive areas and put on alert.”
As high intensity rainfall continued, low-lying areas of Kurla, Chembur, and Sion remained in ankle-deep water till 2 pm. The Andheri Subway, the low-lying area that connects Andheri East to West, was shut for pedestrian and vehicular traffic for the entire day.
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