Rains continue onslaught

MUMBAI, July 7: Heavy rains continued to lash Mumbai for the fourth day throwing normal life completely out of gear. The public transport s...

MUMBAI, July 7: Heavy rains continued to lash Mumbai for the fourth day throwing normal life completely out of gear. The public transport system was the worst affected as local trains were running hours behind schedule and surface transport too moved at a snail’s pace. Air traffic from Mumbai however remained unaffected.

Weather bureau officials termed the rains as "intra-seasonal variation of monsoon" which would last for another 24 hours. Said director Dr B Shyamala,“Heavy rains will continue for at least 24 hours, after which a moderate spell will begin. After nearly four days, the moderate spell will also fade away making way for torrential rains.”

Meanwhile local trains were running as late as by over an hour on the Central Railway (CR) and by 15 minutes on the Western Railway (WR). Peak hour traffic on the CR was disrupted on Monday morning when a CST bound local was terminated at Kurla station. A CR spokesperson said 70 train services on the mainline and 28 on the harbour were cancelled following heavy water logging on the tracks. Despite the CR deploying a 24-hour work force to prevent water logging on tracks, the areas between Sion and Matunga, which are low-lying and devoid of a proper drainage outlet for storm water, were submerged.

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Tired of endlessly waiting for local trains, office goers who decided to change their mode of transport to the BEST bus were in for a rude shock. Due to water logging on several roads and innumerable pot-holes on the city’s trunk roads, road traffic too crawled at a snail’s pace.

The rains may have provided Mumbaikars a much-needed respite from last week’s heat spell, but they have also ushered in a host of diseases like viral fever, typhoid among others. Civic doctors said the trend will continue at least for a fortnight till the rain subsides.

Cargo transporters too faced the wrath of the rains which disrupted vehicular traffic on the Mumbai-Pune, Mumbai-Nasik and Mumbai-Ahmedabad highways. Police control informed that traffic was moving at a "slower than normal pace" , for what they termed as a precautionary measure to reduce accidents due to skidding of vehicles.

No accidents were reported by the police. Transporters said their goods reached late due to heavy rains.