Mumbai Rains, Weather Highlights: Climate change is a real thing, action plan needed, says Aaditya Thackeray

Mumbai Rains Highlights: As Mumbai once again gets flooded due to heavy rains, Maharashtra environment minister Aaditya Thackeray on Wednesday said climate change has become a real thing and stressed on undertaking mitigation measures as part of a larger action plan to deal with the phenomenon. He visited the headquarters of the BMC, controlled by his party Shiv Sena, to take stock of the situation after overnight torrential rains flooded parts of Mumbai and disrupted rail and road traffic on Wednesday in what has become an annual occurrence during the monsoon.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an orange alert in Mumbai and Thane Wednesday, warning of very heavy rains. The Santacruz observatory recorded 286.4mm rainfall in the 24 hours ending 8.30 am Wednesday, the fourth highest daily figure between 1974 and 2020, according to the weather agency. Meanwhile, Santacruz reported 286.4mm rainfall, Colaba 147.8mm, Thane 119.8mm, Ratnagiri 39.5mm and Dhanu 42.1mm.

Suburban services of the Western Railway (WR) in Mumbai resumed fully as water on the tracks receded, it said on Wednesday evening as the city grappled with heavy overnight rains. The Central Railway’s (CR) suburban services resumed later in the evening on its main line, but not those on the harbour line, officials said. With waterlogged tracks, suburban services of both Central Railway and Western Railway were suspended early Wednesday morning.