Central Railway, Western Railway keep train services on track 

“Trans-harbour services are normal. There have been no cancellations. Harbour services are running but with lesser frequency due to water logging in low-lying areas. Mainline services are running but with lesser frequency,” said Sunil Udasi, Chief Public Relations Officer, CR. On August 29, more than 200 train services were cancelled bringing suburban commute to a grinding halt after parts of the city recorded 315 mm rain. While commuters pointed out delays in the suburban train services on Wednesday, they were relieved that the trains ran. However, tracks at many stations, including Nalasopara, Sion, Vashi remained submerged.

“My train was delayed by 15 minutes in the morning. It did not stop anywhere and I reached office without any hassle. This was not expected from the local services, which otherwise get suspended quickly during calamities.
I had to deal with the unavailability of rickshaws and taxis though,” Pankaj Agashe, who was heading to south Mumbai from Vashi, said.

Railways claim they were faster to react to Met warnings. Continuous monitoring of culverts was done to ensure no repeat of August 29. “Soon after the Met warning on Tuesday, older rakes like BHEL and retrofitted ones were stabled. The points were clamped before 5 pm on Tuesday for smooth running during waterlogging. Only 80 per cent of the rakes were put to use from Tuesday evening till Wednesday morning to avoid bunching of trains. Train operations went smoothly during the day,” Udasi added.

“Rainfall measures were taken every half-an-hour and cleaning was ensured in all drains. Low-lying areas on WR remained free from much waterlogging,” a WR Chief Public Relations Officer, Ravinder Bhaker, said. In all, 236 train services in CR and WR were cancelled and more than 300 delayed.
Around 70 per cent of taxis and rickshaws remained off roads on Wednesday. “There was hardly any traffic. Our business was affected due to lesser number of riders. Hardly 20-30 per cent drivers reported to work,” A L Quadros, a taxi union leader, said. Cab aggregators like Ola and Uber removed dynamic pricing from fare charts on Wednesday, they said. More cars were pressed into service, they said.

Only 3,193 buses, from a fleet of 3,401 of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), ran on Wednesday. Traffic was not heavily affected on Wednesday as there were no major snarls in spite of intermittent waterlogging. In the Western suburbs, subways in Andheri, Santacruz and Khar that report frequent waterlogging were not severely affected, the police said. While both Milan Subway and Khar Subway were flooded due to heavy overnight rain, they were opened to traffic later in the day, the police said.

At Andheri, where S V Road was flooded on Tuesday, water was pumped out of the subway. “Water that had collected in the subway was being pumped out by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation,” said Chandrakant Thale, Senior Inspector, Andheri traffic division.

With the state issuing instructions to educational institutions asking them to remain shut, Wednesday did not witness many residents on roads. “It helped that most people stayed indoors today. The traffic situation was smooth,” said Saurabh Tripathi, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic Department.

Apart from vehicles being held up on S V Road in Bandra and traffic being diverted to Linking Road, Tripathi said movement was smooth on both the Western and Eastern Express Highway. Traffic at Aarey Colony was hit due to flooding. The police had to tackle rumours that the Bandra-Worli Sea Link would be shut at 3 pm. “We clarified that it would not be shut. We also made announcements on Twitter,” said Tripathi. Late on Wednesday, traffic from Aarey Colony was diverted to Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road after a bridge was declared unsafe. “It will be repaired by the BMC,” said Vinay Rathod, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone XII.