Mumbai Rain: City drowns, 14 flights diverted, Palghar on red alert

MUMBAI: Starting in the evening, heavy rains lashed Mumbai, touching over 200 mm in the eastern suburbs. Trains on Central Railway stopped running and services on Western Railway were cancelled; waterlogging was reported at many spots; endless queues formed at and outside stations; the cost of rickshaws and taxis skyrocketed; and traffic ground to a halt on countless roads. In Titwala, two young men were killed and two others injured while working in a stone quarry due to an electric surge caused by heavy rains.
The Indian Meteorological Department at 5.30 pm updated its forecast to a red alert till 8 am on Thursday, indicating the chance of extremely heavy rainfall, with thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds in isolated areas. The alert was downgraded from orange to yellow in the 1 pm forecast earlier in the day, then upgraded twice over.
A low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal, its associated cyclonic circulation, a trough running from North Konkan and a shear zone were contributing factors to the downpour, along with the thunder and lightning. Thursday is slated for an orange alert, predicting heavy to very heavy rainfall. A holiday has been announced for all schools and colleges.
Between 5 pm to 10 pm, several spots in the eastern suburbs recorded over 200 mm of rainfall: Mankhurd at 276 mm, Powai at 274.2 mm and Ghatkopar at 259 mm, bringing the average rain in those parts to 167.48 mm.
The western suburbs followed with the average quantum at 95 mm, with Andheri East recording 190 mm, Marol touching 176 mm and Malpa Dongri at 166 mm. While the city had the lowest average rain between 5 pm to 10 pm at 87.79 mm, several spots recorded rains over 100 mm; Sewri at 147mm, Wadala at 146 mm and Sion at 142 mm being the top three.
In the daylight hours, from 8 am to 6 pm, the eastern suburbs received the most rain at 28.31 mm, with the city and western suburbs following at 8.11 mm and 8.30 mm. In the 24 hours till 8.30 am on Wednesday, the Colaba observatory had recorded 41 mm of rain and Santacruz 74 mm.
The downpour picked up thereafter, bringing along with it lightning and thunder. Within the next hour, several spots in the city and eastern suburbs recorded rainfall around 40 mm, Mankhurd touching 41 mm and Fort at 40 mm. Turbhe recorded 38 mm and Colaba 37 mm.
At 7pm, the IMD issued a warning of intense spells of rain with gusty winds reaching 40 to 50 kmph at spots in Mumbai, Palghar, Nandurbar, Dhule, Jalgaon, Solapur and Satara for the next three to four hours. The BMC followed by instructing all assistant commissioners of the wards to keep an executive engineer posted in the ward control room for the night and keep vigil for emergencies. Deputy chief engineers for each zone were also told to be present. Storm water drain staff were ordered to be on the field and manage dewatering pumps. AMCs and DMCs were there to keep a watch.
Municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani was at the BMC headquarters, monitoring the situation from the disaster control room with the additional municipal commissioners.
Between 6 pm and 9 pm, Fort lodged 87 mm of rain, with Marine Lines and Ghatkopar following with 70 mm. Airoli, Vashi, Khairna and Ghansoli too recorded downpours of over 80 mm. Over 60 mm was recorded at Colaba, Memonwada, Chembur and Kopri.
Traffic and waterlogging
Several feet of water lay collected at many spots such as outside Vikhroli Station, Chembur, Bhandup, Hindmata, Parel TT, S V Road at Jogeshwari West, the exit of the Coastal Road and Bhulabhai Desai Road. Commuters faced over five hours delay in reaching their destinations owing to waterlogging-caused traffic snarls reported throughout the city, particularly on the Western and Eastern Express highways.
“Over 2000 traffic personnel have been posted on the roads across the city to ease traffic movement,” said a traffic police officer.
Cabs and autos
Auto rickshaws and taxis were unavailable outside multiple railway stations across Mumbai and Mumbai Metropolitan Region, putting commuters at immense inconvenience. On the cab aggregating apps, services were not only difficult to get but the surge pricing reached up to 80% to 100%.
BEST buses
At least 45 BEST buses were either diverted or curtailed on routes covering Chembur Naka, Chembur, S G Barve Marg, Malad Station, Nehru Nagar in Kurla, the Bhandup section of LBS Road, Shell Colony, V N Purav Marg, Sion, LBS Road at Kurla, Gol Deval and Bhendi Bazaar.
Rail services
On the Central Railway main line, suburban trains from CSMT towards Thane were running late by up to 20 minutes at 8.15pm. In the opposite direction, there was bunching of trains between Thane and Kurla, as they had come to a halt stranding thousands of passengers. Rail lines were under water at several places.
At around 8.45 pm to 9 pm, several trains on WR got cancelled. Track-related works between Goregaon and Kandivali had put restrictions on train speed and heavy rains further added to commuting woes.
Flights
At Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, up to 8.09 pm, seven flights made a go-around. Until 9.56 pm, 14 inbound flights were diverted to Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Goa and Udaipur. There were many more incoming flights that were delayed, resulting in a cascading effect on the departures. All airlines put out alerts through different modes of communication asking their passengers to check for their flight’s status and also to start early for the airport.