Fresh rains lash Mumbai, toll at 891, airport closed

All international and domestic flights halted for six hours

Struggling to recover from the pounding by the heaviest rains in hundred years, fresh downpour buffeted Mumbai and Raigad district of Maharahstra, flooding low-lying areas and halting air traffic in the state capital for a few hours even as the death toll in monsoon fury increased to 891.

As heavy rains began at around 1 am and continued till noon today, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh announced closure of schools, colleges and other educational institutions in Mumbai, Thane and Raigad tomorrow.

The police advised residents not to move out of their homes unless it was essential and said Army, life boats and guards were kept stand-bye.

Traffic on many roads in the city was thrown out of gear and central railway has cancelled all long-distance trains via Igatpuri-Kalyan till August 6.

All international and domestic flights in and out of Mumbai came to a complete halt for more than six hours due to poor visibility following heavy rain before air traffic was gradually restored as rains held off.

A large number of trees were uprooted across the city since last night but there was no loss of life, fire brigade sources said.

Uncertainty of arrivals and departure only added to woes of passengers and visitors.

Many travellers also complained that they had to spend four to five hours in the plane before they were informed about flight cancellation.

The heavy cost of fuel plus uncertainty of flights hovering over Mumbai before diverting and delays in landing is likely to have an impact on the airline bottomline especially in view of the high cost of atf, an airline official observed.

The unavailability of the main runway (09-27) due to continued non-serviceability of the navigational and landing aides like instrument landing system (ILS) and very high frequency omni range has led to major impact on the operations of the airport, he added.

Air-India's flight to US destinations like New York, Newark, Los Angeles and Chicago are to depart after midnight because of the disruptions in india, late arrival of aircraft and slot availabiity in europe, A-I director public relations jitendra Bhargava said.

All of these flights were scheduled to depart early today.

An Indian Airlines spokesman said the airline had operated 16 flights out of Mumbai to destinations like Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Mangalore and Bhopal till 6 pm.

Private airlines like Jet, Deccan and Sahara also had to reschedule and cancel some of their flights due to inclement weather.