Heavy overnight rainfall throws parts of Mumbai out of gear; flooding, traffic diversions follow

According to the district forecast and warning, a yellow alert indicating heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places in Mumbai will continue till July 5 (Express photo by Amit Chakravarty)

With sudden bursts and high-intensity rainfall, South Mumbai residents saw a repeat of August 2020, “uncommon” flooding in parts of South Mumbai such as Breach Candy, Girgaum, Churchgate and Marine lines, among others. With the high-intensity downpour, low-lying areas of Kurla were again waterlogged. The Andheri subway connecting Andheri East to West was again shut for traffic and reopened only at 5 pm on Friday after flood water was pumped out. Traffic was affected and at least 16 BEST buses were diverted following waterlogging in Sion and Chembur areas.

The downpour caused heavy flooding to the city highways and Dadar Hindmata and Matunga Gandhi Market — the two areas where BMC recently completed flood mitigation projects. Chunabhatti, Sion Road no. 24, King Circle, areas in Dadar and Kandivali, Gandhi Market in Matunga, Siddharth Nagar in Goregaon, Chembur Phatak, Milan Subway, Veera Desai Road in Andheri West, Oberoi and Hub mall in Goregaon East, Santacruz near the Western Express Highway and roads leading to the Eastern Freeway were waterlogged.

An area-wise rain chart showed that parts of G south (Lower Parel, Worli), G North (Dadar), and H west (Bandra) recorded over 200 mm of rainfall. Civic officials said intense rainfall was one of the main reasons why these areas were also waterlogged.

Civic officials said there was no warning issued by the IMD for the heavy rainfall that Mumbai saw throughout Thursday. After the downpour, the IMD updated its warning to an orange alert, indicating “heavy to very heavy rain” at isolated places on Thursday afternoon.

For Friday as well, the alert was updated from yellow to orange indicating heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places on Friday afternoon. However, throughout Friday, moderate rainfall at 28.2mm was recorded in Mumbai’s Island city and 51.2 mm in the suburbs.

Haji Ali during high tide and incremental weather in Mumbai. (Express photo by Amit Chakravarty)

According to the district forecast and warning, a yellow alert indicating heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places in Mumbai will continue till July 5. However, the weather bureau said that the intensity of rain will reduce over the weekend. With the sustained rain activity, the total rainfall recorded this season by the IMD Colaba stands at 589 mm, which is 25 mm above normal, while the IMD Santacruz has recorded 467 mm of rainfall, 99 mm below normal.

While the city received heavy to very heavy rainfall, the water level in the catchment areas of the seven lakes that supply drinking water to the city is still low. The seven lakes that provide drinking water to the city have 1,57,773 million litres of water or 10.90 per cent of the total capacity of 14,47,363 lakh million litres. Owing to inadequate rainfall in the catchment areas of the lakes, the city has been reeling under a 10 per cent cut in water supply since June 27.