Cars Submerged, Schools Closed, Trains And Buses Diverted As 6-Hour Rain Spell Batters Mumbai | WATCH

Heavy rains over a 12-hour period flooded roads and railway tracks in Mumbai, disrupting flights and local train services. The downpour forced schools and colleges to shut with the weather department predicting moderate spells of rainfall in the city and suburbs in the next three hours with heavy showers at isolated places.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) in Mumbai recorded more than 268 mm at the main weather station in Santa Cruz between 8.30 pm on Sunday (July 7) and 8.30 am on Monday — with at least 300 mm between 1 am and 7 am (six hours) at some weather stations. Overall, Mumbai receives around 2,300 mm rainfall on average in the entire monsoon season between June and September.

For the next three hours, the weather office predicted moderate spells of rainfall in the city and suburbs with heavy rainfall at isolated places for the next 24 hours (till 8.30 am on July 9). “Heavy rains over a 12-hour period in Mumbai disrupted local train services, flights and Mumbai has recorded over 300 mm of rainfall at various places in six hours from 1 am to 7 am today. Heavy rains in some low-lying areas led to waterlogging and disruption of suburban train services. Heavy rain is also expected today…” said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

After cancelling the first session of schools in the morning, the civic body also declared a holiday for the second half. “Amid heavy rains in Mumbai, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation declares a holiday for the second session of schools today. A holiday was declared for the first session of schools in the morning,” it said.

Commuters waded through knee-deep water that partially submerged vehicles in many areas, as traffic piled up on the city’s Eastern and Western Express highways. Water on the tracks forced railway authorities to cancel some long-distance trains, while visuals from across the city showed suburban passenger trains, Mumbai’s lifeline, halted on inundated tracks.

More than 250 flights were delayed and at least 30 cancelled at the city’s airport, the website of tracking service Flightradar24 showed. The Mumbai University also rescheduled all the examinations for the Centre for Distance and Online Education (CDOE, formerly IDOL) scheduled in the first half from 11 am and 2 pm. The new dates for these exams is July 13.

There was heavy waterlogging in Chunnabhati, Sion, Kurla, Matunga Road, Dadar, Wadala, Bhandup, Vile Parle and King’s Circle with large crowds at railway stations in these areas, as train services were delayed or suspended on the central, harbour and western lines.

“Due to waterlogging at various places, train services on Main line-Down & Up Fast line between CSMT-Thane is suspended. However, Down & Up slow lines are running. Harbour line services are temporarily suspended due to waterlogging at Chunnabhati,” said the Central Railway.

“Suburban trains are running up to 10 minutes late as water is above track level between Matunga Road and Dadar due to heavy rains. High-capacity water pumps are being used to drain water away from the railway tracks,” said the Western Railway.

A number of BEST buses were diverted from their regular route. “My car is stuck on the road. There is no point in blaming the government for the rains. The government is doing its job,” a commuter said.

‘BMC monitoring rain situation’

The BMC said it is monitoring the situation with commissioner Bhushan Gagrani marking his attendance from the disaster control room. “Emergency personnel and officers, along with the emergency control room are stationed at various locations in Mumbai and are keeping an eye on all developments. All deputy commissioners, assistant commissioners, and other systems of the corporation are active at various locations,” the BMC said.

Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said Mumbai received 300 mm of rainfall in six hours last night, which is “10 per cent” of its annual rainfall. He said the city, like others in India and around the world, is suffering the impact of climate change.

“Mumbai received 300 mm of rain in six hours last night. This is 10% of Mumbai’s annual rainfall. Like cities in India and around the world, Mumbai is also suffering from climate change. We should build infrastructure in Mumbai and Maharashtra keeping in view the future environmental problems due to climate change. We should take appropriate steps to face drought, flood, storm 365 days a year. Along with that, we should also try to avoid such problems,” he said in a post on X.

Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in heavily waterlogged and flooded areas of the city like Kurla and Andheri among others as well as suburbs like Thane and Vasai (Palghar). Rains lashed other parts of Maharashtra with rescue and relief teams deployed in Mahad (Raigad), Chiplun (Ratnagiri), Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, Sindhudurg and Nagpur to avert any untoward incident and respond to a flood-like situation.

(With agency inputs)