Heavy rain cripples Mumbai, its the same story every year

Heavy rains lashed the city and Thane district throughout the night and continued on Monday morning, causing waterlogging at several places and slowing the movement of suburban trains.

Like every year, rains pummeled Mumbai and the city came to a standstill. Waterlogged streets and traffic snarls crippled the city as the rail and road traffic was disrupted during rush hours.

Heavy rains lashed the city and Thane district throughout the night and continued on Monday morning, causing waterlogging at several places and slowing the movement of suburban trains.

Two people were killed on Sunday evening when a tree fell on them near the Metro Cinema in south Mumbai, an official from the disaster management unit of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

Suburban trains chug on water-logged tracks during heavy rains in Mumbai

A 13-year-old boy was killed and his parents were injured when a wall collapsed on their house at Wadol village in Thane around 2.15 am on Monday, the district civic body's regional Disaster Management Cell Chief Santosh Kadam said.

Severe water-logging was reported in parts of Goregaon, Andheri, Kandivali, Sion, Malad, Khar, Wadala, Five Gardens, Chembur and Kurla. Waist-deep water was reported at Postal Colony in Chembur and, knee-length waterlogging witnessed at Vile Parle east near Milan Subway.

A car struck in debris after a wall collapsed at a construction site in Antop Hill, Wadala East area, in Mumbai

Traffic was affected at Khar, Malad and Andheri subway due to waterlogging. Parts of Kurla near the Mithi River and Santacruz Chembur Link Road witnessed severe waterlogging for hours. Motorists had to drive through waterlogged roads in Dadar TT, Parel Junction and Mahim. The situation was worst in parts of western suburbs.

A BMC statement said seven cases of house and wall collapses were reported but there were no reports of casualties in any of these cases.

Local train movements were affected

Mumbai received 231.4 mm rain in the last 24 hours, an IMD official said here.

"The Santacruz weather station recorded 231.4 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours. So much rainfall is categorised as extremely heavy showers," IMD Mumbai Director Ajay Kumar told PTI.

"This is the first extremely heavy rainfall recorded in Mumbai in the current season," he said.

The rain intensity has gone up since last afternoon and is expected to continue further, Kumar said.

Several cars struck in debris

Owing to the heavy showers, several parts of the city like Dharavi, Sion, Matunga, Hindmata, Malad, Kurla, Andheri subway, Bhandup, Worli and Lower Parel were flooded with water up to three feet, and vehicles stuck in some places.

(Images credit - PTI images)

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, whose party rules the BMC, reviewed the situation. Thackeray said measures to ensure water was drained out from flooded areas had improved considerably. The Sena chief said Mumbai saw more rainfall than Cherrapunji (a town in Meghalaya which holds two Guinness rainfall records).