Rain plays havoc in Mumbai, teen drowns in Marine Drive
HEAVY INTERMITTENT RAIN RESULTED IN WATERLOGGING AT MANY LOCATIONS THROUGH THE CITY
MUMBAI: The city was jolted out of its extended weekend slumber after heavy rains on Tuesday morning. Water-logging, traffic snarls and rail disruptions on the central and harbour lines made life difficult for commuters.
A high tide measuring 4.81m hit the city at 2.39pm after which two cases of drowning were reported — 17-year-old Preeti Krishna Pise was swept into the sea at Marine Drive while the fire brigade was, at the time of going to press, searching for a young boy, who locals feared drowned at Mahim creek.
Senior police inspector, Vilas Gangawane, Marine Drive police station, said, “The Marine Drive promenade was crowded and we were making announcements about the high tide.” He said Pise, a resident of Chunabhatti studying at Wilson College, was jumping as waves lashed the promenade. “Suddenly, a big wave swept her away,” he said.
Heavy intermittent rain resulted in water-logging at many locations although the BMC claimed it was reported only at Sion and Vidyavihar. A civic official said, “Even if there was water-logging, it lasted for less than 15 minutes as pumps were made operational immediately.”
According to the BMC, 79 de-watering pumps were operationalised on Tuesday afternoon to mitigate flooding — 38 in the island city, 26 in eastern suburbs and 15 in western suburbs.
But citizens took to Twitter to complain about water-logging at Sion, Matunga, Mahim, Hindmata, Ghatkopar, Dadar, Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Linking Road, and parts of Malad and Andheri.
The rain also threw three suburban services on the main and harbour lines of Central Railway (CR) out of gear. Services were running around 30 minutes late during morning peak hours. Trains on the Western Railway were running behind schedule by 10-15 minutes. Even the ThaneVashi trans-harbour line services were hit because of a technical snag in a local train.
Railway sources said more than 50 suburban services were cancelled and several others delayed due to water-logging and a technical snag. A CR spokesperson, however, said only 16 services were cancelled, while the Western Railway (WR) spokesperson did not respond.
The weather bureau said the city may get heavy to very heavy rain till Friday. Officials said that along with the south-west monsoon, other weather systems had made the monsoon pulse even stronger along the Konkan coast. Mumbai could expect strong winds through the week along with the heavy downpour.
“The off-shore trough (low pressure area that pulls moisture) has weakened, but still persists from south Gujarat to Kerala. Additionally, there is a midlevel circulation (weather depression) over south Gujarat. Both factors are pulling a lot of moisture from the Arabian Sea along the Konkan coastline,” said Shubhangi Bhute, director, Regional Meteorological Centre,, IMD.