Two drowned, one injured in different incidents as rain wrecks havoc

Mumbai, July 3: Two people were drowned off Kashimira in adjoining Thane district, while another sustained injuries in a wall collapse incident in the city as rains continued to wreck havoc in this commercial capital of the country.

The Thane police recovered both the bodies today and they were identified as Ajit Pedamkar (32) and Suraj Bali.

Continuous rains for the last four days wrecked havoc in the city with the rail and road traffic being badly affected. The harbour line on the Central Railway had to suspend operations for an hour this afternoon, while the Central main line and the Western line locals were running 25-30 minutes behind schedule.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Commissioner Johny Joseph told mediapersons that there were three cases of wall collapse which were registered with the fire brigade in which one person sustained minor injury. There were also reports of trees uprooting and short circuits, he added.

Reports of water logging in several low lying areas of the city were also reported which forced the authorities to divert traffic through alternate roads leading to major traffic bottlenecks all over the city.

The water logging was removed with the help of pumps. The Municipal Corporation has installed 85 pumps to clear the water from the low lying areas.

Mr Joseph said high alert has been sounded and all the deputy commisssioners, additional commissioners are monitoring the situation in their respective areas.

The continous heavy downpour witnessed moderate attendance in the offices and those who came to work also left early fearing the July 26 deluge of last year.

Coloba and Santacruz recorded 129.0 mm 164.5 mm rainfall during the past 24 hours.

More than 500 Home Guards and 100 life saving guards have been deployed at various parts in the city to take care of any eventuality arising out of the rains.

The Central Railway spokesperson A K Singh said due to overhead equipment problem near Mahim, the harbour line trains to and from Bandra-Andheri were suspended between 0600 and 0700 hrs. Later in the afternoon, water level rose four inches at Wadala Road railway station resulting in suspension of harbour line service between 1600 hrs to 1815 hrs.

The water level also rose at Sion and main line up fast track and Dn slow line service was affected.

However, long distance mail/express trains were running normal on scheduled time, he added.

UNI