CM calls meeting to discuss rain relief measures

The past two days rain-related incidents have claimed 15 lives and left 25 injured in the metropolis.

According to Mantralaya sources, Chief Secretary Dinesh Afzalpurkar today discussed the situation with various department heads and asked them to be fully equipped for any eventualities. The meeting was attended by General Managers M Kritivasan and N P Sinha of the Central and Western Railway respectively, Municipal Commissioner Girish Gokhale, Commissioner of Police R H Mendonca and top officials at the BEST and MSRTC.

While the suburban services on the Western Railway resumed normal operations, the Central Railway, owing to the damage of 12 rakes, will operate only 85 per cent of its services during peak hours for the next two days. Sinha assured that strenuous efforts were being made to restore the operations.

Meanwhile, the BEST will operate additional buses from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) to Mulund, Chembur and Ghatkopar. Arrangements have also been made to operate additional MSRTC buses between CST and Thane, Kalva, Mumbra and Dombivli.

B Shaymala, Director of Regional Meteorological Centre at Colaba, said the weather will continue to remain the same “for some more time”. The Santacruz observatory recorded the rainfall at 29.2 cm, while at Colaba it was 27 cm at 9 am.

Signal three has been hoisted at the ports and fishermen have been warned not to venture out in the sea. Rains this morning had uprooted some trees and caused electrical short circuits, the fire brigade sources said.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation confirmed that the rains during lastcouple of days have led to the filling up of two out of the six lakes which provide water to the city. The Modak Sagar lake (Lower Vaitarna) was overflowing at a level of 535.30 feet, while Tansa stood at 421.70 feet, they said. However, Bhatsa lake, which was recored to be overflowing till yesterday, showed a decrease in its level with 426.17 feet.

Meanwhile, several Mumbai-bound trains from Chennai have been either cancelled or re-scheduled due to incessant rains there. The Mumbai Mail, scheduled to leave Chennai at 10.20 pm today, has been cancelled due to late running of its pairing train. However, one passenger special will leave at the same time today, a railway press release here said.