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Incessant and heavy rains since Monday night threw normal life in parts of Mumbai out of gear on Tuesday with the city witnessing severe waterlogging at nearly 20 streets and locations, including arterial roads, roads leading to city highways along with low-lying areas of Kurla, Sion, Chembur, Matunga, Antop Hill, Wadala and Andheri, causing delay in local train services and disrupting vehicular traffic.
The residents of state capital witnessed a heavy downpour starting Monday evening with 277.5 mm, which is extremely heavy rainfall, being received in a 33-hour-period ending at 5:30 pm on Tuesday. Of the total rainfall, 55 per cent, i.e., 153.3 mm rain, categorised as very heavy rain, was recorded in nine hours on Tuesday. As many as 13 weather stations in the city recorded over 100 mm of rain during the period. The highest amount of rainfall was recorded in Vikhroli at 164 mm, followed by 145 mm at Chembur station.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) indicated that the heavy rainfall will continue till the end of this week in Mumbai, the Konkan region along with ghat areas of Madhya Maharashtra.
The heavy rainfall also came as a first challenge for the newly elected BJP-Eknath Shinde camp alliance a day after it won the trust vote in the state legislative assembly.
After reviewing the flood situation, Chief Minister Shinde asked the administrations of six districts to prepare for shifting residents from flood-prone areas if needed. Shinde also visited the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) disaster control room and appreciated the work done by the civic body at Hindmata and Gandhi Market— the two chronic flooding spots. The BMC had constructed two holding ponds at the spots to store the excess flood water during heavy rainfall. The holding ponds were one of the key projects of former state environment minister Aaditya Thackeray.
Talking to the media, Shinde said, “There are 25 spots in the city where any incident of waterlogging can disrupt local train services. Therefore, I have instructed BMC commissioner IS Chahal to keep an alternate mode of transport available — State Transport and BEST buses for passengers who may get inconvenienced. The citizens can then head to their homes in these buses without any delay and without being forced to spend a bomb on private transportation.”
Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said, “Both the CM and I are round-the-clock monitoring the situation arising due to heavy rains… NDRF teams have been stationed in all flood-sensitive areas and put on alert.”
As high intensity rainfall continued, low-lying areas of Kurla, Chembur, and Sion remained in ankle-deep water till 2 pm. The Andheri Subway, the low-lying area that connects Andheri East to West, was shut for pedestrian and vehicular traffic for the entire day.
The downpour caused heavy flooding in other low-lying areas such as Kurla, Chunabhatti, Sion Road no. 24, King Circle, Wadala bridge, areas in Dadar and Kandivali, Malad, Chembur Phatak, Milan Subway, Linking Road in Bandra West, SV Road in Bandra and Kandivali, LBS Road in Kurla, DN Nagar and Veera Desai Road in Andheri West and Santacruz near the Western Express Highway.
Throughout Tuesday, Traffic remained affected and over 50 buses were forced to either cancel or divert routes, including in Andheri, Chembur, Sion, Bandra and Wadala as the city recorded an intense spell of rain (20 mm per hour) all through the day. Slow-moving traffic was seen near Santacruz Railway Station, Mankhurd, Dadar TT and Matunga as well as Sion and Chembur area where 1-1.5 feet of waterlogging was reported.
Amid heavy rains, 11 wall collapse episodes, 12 tree-falls, and six short-circuit incidents were recorded in the city. A retaining wall of Shibani building built by Gundecha developers on Zig Zag Road in Pali Hill in Bandra collapsed on Tuesday evening, smashing a Honda City parked beneath. The owner of the vehicle said he was on his way to enter the car when the incident happened.
After the downpour, IMD updated the warning to orange alert, indicating “extremely heavy rain” at isolated places on Tuesday for Mumbai.
According to district forecast and warning issued by IMD Mumbai, extremely heavy rain at isolated places is very likely in Palghar, Thane, and Mumbai till Saturday. IMD has issued a red alert for the South Konkan region comprising Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg till Saturday. Ghat areas of Kolhapur and Satara are also highly likely to witness extremely heavy rains till Friday, stated the forecast.
Meanwhile, the Powai Lake in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai started overflowing on Tuesday evening. The water from the lake is used for industrial purposes and it flows into the Mithi river. According to the BMC, last year, the lake started overflowing on June 12.
In Raigad district, Kundalika River crossed the danger mark on Tuesday. Several other rivers such as Savitri, Pataganga, Ulhas, and Amba recorded increased water levels.
Earlier, Opposition leader in the state council Praveen Darekar visited Raigad district to assess the situation. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Ashish Shelar visited several parts of Mumbai to check the waterlogging situation in low-lying areas.
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