Rain fury moves west; toll 28

Twenty-one villages in Manor were the worst affected in Thane district while the low-lying areas of Bhiwandi, Ulhasnagar, Kalyan and Ambernath were also inundated, additional chief secretary (Home) Karun Shrivastava said.

The Army has been put on alert as a precautionary measure and at least 10,000 persons have already been shifted to safer places, Shrivastava added.

A Navy helicopter was pressed into service at Manor for relief operations while two teams of divers were sent to Ambernath and Kasara followingmessages that the Konark and Kushinagar express trains were stranded with tracks submerged in six feet of water, a defence release said.

Incessant rains also caused widespread damage to crops and property in Jalgaon, Nashik, Nandurbar, Dhule and Amravati districts.

Villages in Manor were inundated as the Surya river was flowing well above its danger mark. The Tansa, Vaitarna and Upper Vaitarna lakes in the city were also overflowing, Shrivastava said.

About 6,000 persons from Manor and 4,000 from Bhiwandi have been shifted to safer places. However, about 500 persons in some areas of Bhiwandi refused to come out, he said.

Teams of police, revenue and municipal officials will be posted at key locations throughout the night, the chief secretary added.

Mumbai city however bore the brunt of the downpour today with the depression over coastal Gujarat sucking monsoon clouds into the metropolis. Colaba recorded a rainfall of 9.4 mm while Santacruz received 115.0 mm in the last 24 hours.

A wall collapse inBhandup on Wednesday night claimed one life. On Saifi Jubilee street, an entire six-storey building, fixed earlier by the Repair Board, gave away. However, no injuries were reported. At Vikhroli, Park Site, two houses built on the gutters on Anandgad were swept away. One person sustained minor injuries.

Offices reported thin attendance with staffers, especially those living in the low-lying Central suburbs, trickling out towards evening.

Judges at the Bombay High Court were inconvenienced as secretaries and stenos stayed away. The entire Central Railway secretarial staff failed to show up.

Flooding was also reported at the subways of Khar, Malad, Mulund, Mahim junction, Hindmata cinema, Matunga bridge, between Wadala and Bandra stations, Sion-Matunga, Linking Road, Sakinaka, Kings Circle and Sindhi Society, Chembur.

The civic authorities also received complaints of choked drains at Sabala Sadan on R C Marg as well as on Peddar Road near Jaslok hospital.

Low-lying areas in the northern suburbs ofBorivli, Kandivli and Dahisar were inundated and suburban railway services badly affected.

As many as 25 long distance trains on Central Railway (CR) were either cancelled, terminated or diverted due to breaches and flooding of tracks in the Kalyan-Igatpuri section, a CR release said. On the Western Railway, several trains were running late due to breaches in the Surat section.

However, suburban trains were later reported running between Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and Kalyan. Services on the Harbour line, disrupted for four hours during the day, resumed in the evening.

The Gorakhpur Express was stranded between Umbarwali and Kasara due to water logging on the tracks of which 200 m have been washed away.

The Amritsar Express, the Mahanagari Express and the Bhavan Express which had left for their destinations last night had to be brought back. All trains headed for Pune, including the Indrayani, Deccan and Shatabdi, were cancelled while the Gitanjali Express and the Dadar-Kashi-GorakhnathExpress diverted their routes. Many long-distance trains have been rescheduled, the official added.