Tags:
Journalism of Courage
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 snail8217;s pace. Air traffic from Mumbai however remained unaffected.
Weather bureau officials termed the rains as quot;intra-seasonal variation of monsoonquot; which would last for another 24 hours. Said director Dr B Shyamala,8220;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.8221;
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 city8217;s trunk roads, road traffic too crawled at a snail8217;s pace.
The rains may have provided Mumbaikars a much-needed respite from last week8217;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 quot;slower than normal pacequot; , 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.
