Rain again: City gets a 24-hr high,yet floats

Data from the Automatic Weather Stations installed by the BMC at 24 locations in the city showed 270.6 mm between 8:30 am Sunday to the same time on Monday.

Eastern suburbs again recorded the maximum with 113.5 mm in 24 hours,followed by western suburbs with 99.78 mm. The island city,too,had good showers,58 mm.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted a similar Tuesday.

VK Raijv,Director,IMD,said the city has been witnessing an active monsoon for the past three days. “Upper cyclonic winds over Gujarat are one the main reasons of increased monsoon activity in the past 78 hours. Gusty winds and heavy to very heavy rainfall can be expected on Tuesday,” said Rajiv. The island city has received 13 per cent more than average annual rainfall while the suburbs accounted for 6 per cent higher than the average so far this monsoon.

Despite consistent rain,the city did not ‘sink’ as usual,through there were a few complaints of waterlogging. Mahesh Narvekar,BMC chief disaster officer said complaints of waterlogging has been showing a decline.

Most trains also ran unaffected. While some central line services were hit between Dadar and CST due to signal failure on Monday afternoon,trains on the harbour and western lines ran as per schedule.

Officials said waterlogging complaints had declined this year despite the heavy rainfall. “A number of reasons contributed to improved rain-coping mechanism. The two pumping stations that have come up this year at Haji Ali and Irla Nullah under BRIMSTOWAD has helped eliminate waterlogging in the city and western suburbs. Also,we have asked representatives of contractors operating de-watering pumps to give us constant updates on these pumps,” said Narvekar.

With Mithi river rising,residents of Kranti Nagar Kurla have been asked to be alert. On Monday,the river rose 2.2 metres,0.5 short of the 2.7-metre danger mark,when evacuation will begin. “We have stationed all our disaster management personnel and firemen to begin evacuation if levels rise dangerously at night,” said Narvekar.