WETWAY TO WORK
WETTEST SPELL SO FAR
After footbridges, it is the turn of city and suburban buildings which are not in the best of condition. The main structure of Popular Terrace, a housing society located in Haridas Nagar in Borivali West, has weakened. Realising the urgency, the BMC has evacuated the residents and repairs have been initiated. The fire brigade and ambulance are on stand by and BMC ward officials were present at the site when reports last trickled in.
In a major operation mounted in Palghar, the administration rescued scores of villagers stranded in their 100odd homes on the coastal saltpan lands in Vasai.
The disaster management team deployed motorized inflatable boats to access the villagers scattered at various locations and gave them food packets and drinking water.
Around a dozen tourists trapped near a swollen waterfall in Ratnagiri were rescued by a group of mountaineers and hikers.
Mumbai woke up to yet another day of relentless downpour, flooded streets and waterlogged rail tracks, constraining the education department to declare it a holiday in schools and colleges.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department, the rainfall in the last 24 hours was the highest in the season thus far. On the brighter side, Tulsi Lake, one of the seven catchment areas supplying water to Mumbai, was overflowing in the evening. So much for bounty of rain. Mumbai has received over 50 per cent of the season's average rainfall in the last 20 days itself, a BMC official said.
With streets waterlogged, surface transport went for a toss. Though there were fewer private vehicles on the road, wary motorists had to crawl through the water at a snail’s pace. The low visibility, the potholes and the culverts added to their misery.
Those without transport had to wade through knee-deep water at several places; the only consolation was the presence of BMC staff who steered them away from potholes.
The BMC had their share of problems but they insisted that they were doing their best to help Mumbaikars. “Although water is accumulated at several places across the city, it is receding much quicker than it used to in the previous years. No one talks about that," said a BMC official from the storm water drains department, miffed at the barrage of criticism.There was no escape from waterlogging in low-lying areas such as Dadar, Sion, Parel, Kurla, Vidyavihar, Andheri, Malad and Jogeshwari. For residents in these areas, this is a way of life. They had little choice but to click snaps and share them on social media.
Trains on Western Railways were held up for 25 minutes or so; Harbour Line services were delayed by 10 minutes; and Central Railways by 20 minutes. More alarming was the cancellation of 100 train services on both lines. Railway tracks were mostly flooded at Kurla, Sion, Wadala, Thane and Kalwa. But thankfully, there were no cave-ins except a minor wall collapse at Sandhurst Road station. On the WR route, Nallasopara was the worst hit with water level veering close to 180 mm above rail level.
Also, the foot overbridge at PD Mello Road has been shut for public. Visibility at Mumbai airport was not too good but flights were operating as per schedule. Although some flights were delayed, the situation was much better than a few days back when many flights had to be cancelled. According to the official website of Mumbai airport, a total 162 flights were delayed during departure and 134 during arrival. On Sunday, over 400 flights were delayed.