NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Rediff Shopping

Shop & gift from thousands of products!   Books     Music       Apparel   Jewellery   Flowers   More..      Safe Shopping

Heavy rains in Bombay bring life to a grinding halt

Our Correspondent in Bombay

At least seven people died and 21 others were injured due to incessant rains in Bombay. Most parts of the city experienced flooding and suburban train services remained non-functional for a major part of the day.

"There will be more rains in the next two days in coastal parts of Maharashtra, including Bombay and Thane, with gusts and strong winds," a spokesman of the weather bureau said.

Suburban railway services remained suspended for a major part of the day. With nearly six million people dependent on them for commuting to their workplace, life was thrown out of gear.

The Bombay Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking stopped plying buses on many routes due to waterlogging. Following the deluge, most schools, colleges and offices in the city declared a holiday.

The city's lakes were overflowing.

All outstation trains were suspended and incoming trains could not enter Bombay as almost every railway station was flooded. Both the Eastern Express and the Western Express highways were flooded and many vehicles got stranded.

At Ghatkopar, two men and two girls died in a landslide, whereas 10 others were injured. Two boys drowned near Vakola, while one person died at Deonar.

A two-storeyed building at Madanpura, near the Byculla fire station, collapsed. However, there were no casualties.

At Parkside, Vikhroli, three people were injured when a house on a hill got washed away. The wall of a housing co-operative society at Bhandup collapsed, too.

Four international and eight domestic flights to Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport were diverted due to bad weather and poor visibility, airport sources said, adding that there was no aircraft movement between 1010 hours and 1040 hours (IST).

A Singapore Airlines cargo aircraft was diverted to Delhi and a FedEx flight to Bangkok, while a Pakistan International Airlines flight returned to Karachi. An Air-India flight from Trivandrum was diverted to Madras, sources said. Six Jet Airways and two Indian Airlines flights were diverted to various other places.

The weather bureau has predicted heavy rains, accompanied by strong, gusty winds for the next 24 hours.

Rainfall recorded:
Colaba: 162.7 mm
Santa Cruz: 81.0 mm.

Fishermen have been warned against venturing out into the sea.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report