Heavy rain at last and traffic goes haywire
Several roads flooded giving city motorists a tough time; heavy rain in isolated areas in next few days: IMD
HT Correspondents
MUMBAI: Heavy monsoon showers pounded the city in the last 24 hours, leaving several areas inundated and bringing the traffic on major arterial roads to a crawl.
The India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) weather station at Colaba received 227.8mm rain in the period ending 8.30 am on Friday. This marks the station’s highest oneday rainfall in a decade for June, and the second highest in a decade for July (since the showers were in the intervening period between the two months). IMD’S base weather station in Santacruz recorded 175.5mm rain.
Officials attributed the downpour to westerly winds getting strengthened, which helped carry rain-bearing clouds over the city’s coastline. The rain continued through the day on Friday, with IMD recording 51.2mm rain in Santacruz and 28.2mm rain in Colaba between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm.
IMD has forecast a decrease in the rain intensity over the next few days, downgrading Friday’s orange category storm alert to a yellow category alert, indicating “heavy rain at isolated places”.
Data from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) shows Mahim, Dadar, Dharavi, Parel and Worli received rainfall over 200 mm, leading to water stagnation.
Sunil Deshmukh, a resident of Mahim, said that the road between Hindmata Junction and King’s Circle was “submerged”.
Dushyant Tambole, a Hindmata resident, said, “Even though the water level was not higher like previous years, yet there was traffic jam.”
Similar grievances were aired by residents in the western suburbs. “Main roads in Andheri and Juhu were under knee-deep water, mostly around places where construction work is going on,” Dhaval Shah, member of the Lokhandwala-oshiwara Citizens Association, said.
However, despite the downpour, water stock in the city’s drinking water reservoirs didn’t record any significant increase.
Situation in MMR
Among the places in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Thane and nearby cities experienced heavy rain since Friday morning, leading to traffic congestion on the Sion-panvel Highway towards Pune, the Eastern Express Highway in Thane, and the Mumbai-nashik Highway during the evening peak hours.
Traffic police said other than the rain, traffic jams were also because of the weekend crowd moving out of Thane, Mumbai, and Navi Mumbai.
Till 6.30 pm, an average of 73.53mm rain was reported in Navi Mumbai and 60.19mm rain was recorded in Thane.
In Thane, the parapet of a seven-storey building collapsed on shops and vehicles in Ambedkar Nagar in the evening. Though a few vehicles were damaged, no one was injured in the incident. In another incident in Panchpakhadi, a 10-foot compound wall of Gauri Nandan building collapsed.
Water stagnation was reported in the vicinity of Vandana Cinema and Koliwada near Thane railway station.
The stretch between Globe Business Park and Vimco Naka on the Kalyan-badlapur Highway was also waterlogged. This highway is a vital link between Kalyan, Ulhasnagar, Ambernath, and Badlapur. It also connects Murbad and Karjat. Several two-wheelers broke down due to the inundation.
“This is the scenario on this stretch every year and one major reason for it is the poor drainage system. The road is being concretised but the stagnated rainwater does not flow out,” Amit Surve, a motorist travelling to Badlapur from Kalyan, said.