Three killed as season’s heaviest rain hits Mumbai

Heavy rain led to severe water logging in Chambur and Powai aria on Monday. (Express photo by Prashant Nadkar)

Police said Kiran Ghaiwat (15) was killed after a wall collapsed in Ambernath, and Prashant Thanage (48) was killed in Ulhasnagar after his car rammed into a divider owing to low visibility. In Mumbai, a huge part of a compound wall as well as the driveway caved in at Lloyd’s Estate, a highrise in Wadala next to an under-construction project of Dosti Realty, on Monday morning. While no casualty was reported, 14 cars were buried under the debris. As a precautionary measure, residents were asked to evacuate their homes. By afternoon, 120 families from the D-wing, which is near the cave-in spot, had left their homes.

Express cartoon by Mika Azizi

The Mumbai Police have registered a case against Dosti Realty Ltd owner Deepak Garodia, chairman Kishan Garodia, and director Rajesh Shah, along with officials from the building proposal department under Sections 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), 287 (negligent conduct with respect to machinery), and 431 (mischief by injury to public road, bridge or channel) of the IPC. Several parts of the city, like Chunabhatti, Wadala, Dadar, Malad, Kurla, Gamdevi, Santacruz-Chembur Link Road, were flooded, causing major traffic disruptions. Waterlogging was reported in some parts of the Eastern and Western Express Highways, arterial roads, and many low-lying areas of the city and suburbs. The water level receded after 5 pm.

People help in lifting a car that fell into a drain at Mumbai Pune Highway near Kharghar on Monday fllowing heavy rain and waterlogging. (Express Photo By Narendra Vaskar)

In another incident, Rajkumari Goud, 37, suffered multiple fractures after a balcony collapsed in Jadhav chawl, near Durga Mandir. A road cave-in was reported near Gol Masjid in New Marine Lines area, but no casualty was reported. Local train services of the Central Railway (CR), Western Railway (WR) and on the Harbour Line corridor were delayed by 10-15 minutes. Water-logging was seen on the tracks near Thane, Sion, Tilak Nagar, Kandivali, Borivali and Kalwa stations. At Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, two flights were diverted. More than 50 bus routes of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) were diverted due to water-logged roads.

The IMD has predicted heavy to very heavy rain in the city in the next 24 to 48 hours. “These heavy showers are due to a cyclonic circulation over north Konkan and adjoining south Gujarat and another circulation in the Bay of Bengal. We expect the rain activity to increase in the coming week, with scattered heavy to very heavy rain on June 27 and 28 in parts of north Konkan, including Mumbai,” an IMD official told PTI.

According to Skymet weather, the city and its adjoining areas are likely to receive moderate to heavy showers on Tuesday as well. “In the next 24 hours, Mumbai and its adjoining areas are likely to get heavy showers. People need to be careful for the next two days. The intensity of rain is likely to reduce from June 27, and by June 28 it will further reduce,” said Mahesh Palawat, Vice President, Meteorology and Climate Change, Skymet Weather in a tweet. “There is a cyclonic circulation over north Konkan-Goa and south Gujarat region which is causing the heavy rains. The winds coming from the Arabian Sea are increasing the intensity of the rains,” he tweeted.