Heavy rains bring trains, traffic to a stop in Mumbai

Heavy rains continued to lash Mumbai for the third consecutive day today, leading to water-logging in low-lying areas and affecting road and rail in the metropolis.

Water-logging has been reported from several places including Andheri, Khar and Malad subway with the rainfall intensifying since last evening.

The city recorded an average rainfall of 127.3 mm between 3:30 am to 5:30 pm on Monday at the Colaba metrological station. Wadala, Dadar, Dharavi and Byculla received the highest rainfall.

In the eastern suburb, Vikhroli recorded the highest rainfall of 195.2 mm whereas Bandra and Goregaon got more than 150 mm of rainfall in the western suburbs. The weather bureau has forecast heavy rains for the next 48 hours.

The commissioner Johny Joseph said in a statement, "The coming 24 hours will be critical for the city and the citizens are requested to leave home only when it is necessary." Municipal commissioner's office has sent out mobile messages to this effect.

While local trains and road traffic was affected across the city, air traffic international are operating as scheduled," said an airport official. However, he said all the flights are behind schedule by 30 - 45 minutes but attributed the reason to the availability of limited infrastructure at the airport. "It has become normal now for quite some time," he added.

Most of the local trains on western, central and harbour lines were running late in the peak morning hours. Services on the western line were reported to be running late by 15 minutes and the central railway which was the worst hit had trains getting delayed by 25-30 minutes.

"Major reason of the delay was the water logging of the track between Sion and Kurla," said a central railway spokesperson.

During the day, some services were restored as there was a brief let up in the rains. But with rains coming back in the evening, road traffic and trains services thrown out of gear again.

The services on the harbour line was completely shut down in the evening. And till reports came last, the services between Kurla and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) on the central line could not be put on track. However, the train services between Kurla and Panvel were running normally.

"On the mainline, from CST upto Matunga we are using only one line and beyond that both the lines are in use. And towards CST both the lines are in use," said A.K.Tewari, additional divisional railway manager. He added that the tracks between Kurla and Wadala are being monitored continuously as they are under water and hampering train movement.

There were some cancellation of suburban services on the western line as water logging was reported at Mumbai Central. In the morning there was technical problem between Bandra and Churchgate which was restored later. Throughout the day the services remained late by 15-20 minutes on the western line.

More than 15000 taxis also stayed off the roads in the city. "Heavy rainfall has caused around 50 per cent of the taxis in the city to go off the roads as water entered the vehicles. Water logging at Mumbai Central and Tardeo worsened the situation," said Al Quadros, president, Mumbai Taximen Union.

Taxis have been kept off the road in areas like Parel, Lalbaug, Matunga, Sion, Wadala, Kurla near LBS marg and Chembur, he added.