At least 26 spots in city report waterlogging
IMD DIDN’T WARN
Jayanta Sarkar, head of the IMD’S regional forecasting centre in Mumbai, said there will be widespread rainfall over the Konkan coast during the next five days, indicating more than 75% of all monitoring stations will receive some measure of rain.
Asked why IMD had not been able to forecast Friday’s heavy rains, Sarkar responded, “There are two components in forecasting. Intensity and distribution. We predicted the distribution correctly, but the intensity, which was confined to the western suburbs, could not be predicted since the cloud cover formed extremely quickly in the morning.”
Though forecasters were in agreement that Friday’s thunderstorm was near impossible to predict, they also criticised IMD for poor functioning of its doppler radar in Colaba. The radar had become defunct during heavy showers on Wednesday, and has been scanning images at intervals of every 45 minutes. A higher scan frequency would provide more actionable data for stakeholders during unexpected extreme weather events.
and July 16, as per IMD, is 935.8mm. In other words, Mumbai has received rainfall that is 65% in excess of the normal, up to July 16. For the month of July alone, the city has so far received 583mm of rain, which is 70% of the cumulative average rainfall for the month, i.e. 827mm. Mumbai has also received 70% of its seasonal normal up to September-end.
Meanwhile, prevailing wind patterns -- i.e. opposing easterly and westerly winds -- which kept rain away from the city also continue, independent meteorologists said
MUMBAI: As heavy rain lashed the city on Friday since around 4am, waterlogging was reported in at least 26 spots (eight each in Island city and eastern suburbs and 10 in western suburbs). These areas include Dadar TT, Hindmata, Gandhi Market, Sion, Kurla subway, LBS Road, RCF Colony, Chembur, Andheri, Milan and Dahisar subways, Khar station, Link Road (Bandra and Khar), Hub Mall on Western Express Highway and Oberoi Mall in Goregaon.
On Friday early morning, over 250 citizens residing on the banks of Mithi River were evacuated, as it crossed the danger mark. By afternoon, however, they were allowed to go back home, as the water level receded.
According to BMC, between 4am and 9am, most areas received over 100mm of rainfall.
Hindmata and Gandhi Market, the two areas that witness waterlogging every year, also went under water despite the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) setting up huge dewatering pumps and underground silos.
Civic activist Nikhil Desai said, “On Friday morning, there was waterlogging despite BMC setting up pumps. They had said they would use in the pumps during heavy rainfall, but on Friday it took around three hours for in the water to be drained out of Gandhi Market. After spending so much, this should not happen.”
Additional civic commissioner P Velrasu said, “At Hindmata, water was drained out by 9am, but at Gandhi Market it took us around three hours as the work has not been completed. The situation will get better in the coming days as we complete the work at both sites.”
Meanwhile, mayor Kishori Pednekar visited the area around on Western Express Highway in Santacruz (East) that was waterlogged and directed officials to fix the drainage system that got disturbed due to Metro works.
As waterlogging was reported at Sion, Kurla and Chunabhatti stations, train services were suspended on the fast line between Matunga and Mulund and services on the slow train were operating at restricted speed. By 1.00pm, services resumed completely. Meanwhile, BEST diverted its buses on 27 routes and 67 buses also broke down.
Inputs from Aroosa Ahmed