 "Tauktae: Mumbai airport to remain shut till 6 pm due to cyclone alert")
The city's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), which had earlier decided to keep all operations shut till 6 pm on Monday in view of the cyclone alert, has now extended the closure period to 8 pm.
As the result of the cyclone alert, the closure of the operations at the airport has now been further extended till 1800 hours (6pm) on May 17, CSMIA said in its latest operations update.
After announcing the suspension of all flight service at the facility from 11 am to 2 pm, initially, the private airport later extended it to 4 pm.
Further, three city-bound flights operated by budget carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet were diverted due to the closure of all services at the city airport.
A city-bound IndiGo flight was diverted to Hyderabad and a SpiceJet flight to Surat, while one IndiGo flight was sent back to Lucknow, as per CSMIA.
India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert for Mumbai, warning of very heavy rains at isolated places with strong winds on Monday as cyclone Tauktae is likely to pass close to the Mumbai coast.
Gusty winds and rains lashed Mumbai and its neighbouring areas overnight and on Monday morning as the cyclonic storm was heading towards Gujarat, officials said.