 "Mumbai comes to a standstill due to heavy rains, political blame game begins")
Normal life in the country's financial capital came to a grinding halt today as torrential rains wreaked havoc in the city and its suburbs leading to cancellation of local train services that left thousands of commuters stranded.
The downpour also led to disruption of vehicular traffic and delayed flight operations with three services being diverted.
The rains caused water-logging in almost all low-lying areas of Mumbai and its suburbs including Kurla, Chembur, Tilak Nagar, Andheri, Parel, Lower Parel, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Dombivili.
The average rainfall recorded in 24 hours ending 8 am today is -- City 188 mm, Eastern Suburbs 155 mm, Western Suburbs 172 mm, according to the meteorological department. With the MET predicting heavy to very heavy rains in some areas, it doesn't seem like the situation will get better soon.
While Central Railway services still remain cancelled, the Western Railway resumed complete services only in the evening.
Earlier in the day, thousands of commuters leaving for offices were caught unaware on reaching the suburban railway stations as trains were being cancelled due to water-logging of tracks following heavy downpour since last night.
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Narrating his ordeal, Nalasopara resident Atul Panday, an executive working with Alkem Laboratories said, "Normally, it takes me 50 minutes to reach Andheri from Nalasopara, but today it took around two hours."
BMC has already ordered schools across the city to remain shut in view of rains while Mumbai University (MU) deferred examinations of BA, MA and also the practical examinations of MSC.
Mumbai Mayor Snehal Ambekar said over 100 pumps are being operated to flush out the excess water and advised people not to ventures to beaches or near seashores.
Around 250 special buses have been deployed to ferry commuters who have been stranded in different parts of the city as the suburban train services have collapsed.
Meanwhile, the blame game has begun. The Congress has blamed the BMC for the "mess", with city unit president Sanjay Nirupam saying the BMC has repeatedly failed to tackle the water-logging issue Mumbai faces every year.
Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant refuted the claims, saying the BMC has been working hard to help Mumbai residents, adding that "such issues should not be politicised".
But there are very few takers for Sawant's clarification. Several Mumbaikars, who are stranded on roads and at the railway stations criticised the Shiv Sena-BJP ruled BMC for its tall claims of flood free Mumbai due to the cleaning of nullahs and other pre-monsoon works.
They were especially referring to Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray's recent statement, where he said, “Just like I can't tell you how about the amount of rain expected this monsoon, similarly, I can't tell you about the work. But it is satisfactory. I visited all the sites as per schedule with the BMC commissioner and officials to get an idea of the ongoing work and sincerely hope that people won't be adversely affected this year by any flooding of the Mithi.”
Shiv Sena youth wing chief Aditya Thackeray, after supervising the road repair works in May, had also claimed that the people will notice a change. "We have taken up desilting of drains on a war footing and more pumping stations will be in place by the end of the year. All this will have a major impact on managing Mumbai's monsoons," he had said.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis visited the BMC control room and reviewed the situation. "I reviewed the situation with the chief secretary and top civic officials," he said.