Rains continue to lash city for fifth consecutive day

Mumbai, Jun 10 (UNI) Incessant rains continued in the city and suburbs today for the fifth consecutive day, disrupting traffic in the busy South Mumbai district and the far-flung western and Eastern Express highways.

Traffic moved at a snail's pace on both the highways and in the congested areas of Lalbaug and Mohammedali road but by evening with the lull in rains, things were back to normal.

The services on the Harbour line of the Central Railway were running 30 minutes late this morning because of water-logging at Chunabhatti, Kurla and Govandi stations, railway sources said adding that the services were normalised by afternoon.

Bus services in the city were largely unaffected, except for water-logging at certain busy intersections, including the road to the airport. The schedule of incoming and outgoing flights at the airport was unhampered and take-off's and arrivals were normal.

Meanwhile, the toll in the monsoon related incidents rose to 10, with the death of 35-year-old Mohammad Shiraj due to electrocution at Goregaon.

The number of monsoon related ailments have also increased, with 114 people already admitted to government hospitals in the last 24 hours.

With increase in monsoon related problems, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and city police are also getting ready to tackle emergency situations. The city police has trained as many as 2,000 policemen to tackle any evntuality and pass on information to the Disaster Management Control Room.

Talking to mediapersons today, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Commissioner Jairaj Phatak said the metropolis has received the heaviest rainfall so far till June 9 since the onset of monsoon.

''In all the years, if we calculate the total rainfall till June 9, then this year has received the highest rainfall,'' he disclosed.

During the last five days, Colaba received 364.8 mm of rainfall and Santacruz 429.1 mm, Disaster Cell official said.

Till 0830 hrs today, rainfall recorded in Colaba was 65.0 mm, while at Santacruz it was 62.4 mm.

UNI TEAM SR OBB RJ AS2135