Heavy rains in Mumbai on Thursday resulted in water-logging in several areas, traffic jams on most arterial roads and delay in suburban train services of both Western and Central Railways, officials said.
The India Meteorological Department's (IMD) Mumbai centre had issued a 'red' alert for Mumbai and neighbouring Raigad district on Thursday, predicting 'heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places'.
For Friday, the IMD has issued a 'yellow' alert for Mumbai, predicting heavy rainfall at isolated places.
The intensity of rains was greater in the island city (the areas in the southern part till the causeway in Mahim) in the first half of Thursday, while the suburbs received heavy rains since late afternoon, with Dahisar in the north getting rainfall of 185.41 millimetres, they added.
As per the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's rain data, the figure was 146.80 for Borivali West, 133 mm in Kandivali, both on the northern edge of the metropolis, while it was 103 mm in Colaba and 101 mm in Fort area at the southern tip.
The average rainfall for the island city, eastern and west suburbs was 83.23 mm, 62.72 mm and 95.01 mm, respectively, between 8 am to 6 pm.
Civic officials said water-logging was witnessed in Matunga, DN Nagar, Byculla, Trombay, Azad Maidan, Kandivali, Kalbadevi, Oshiwara, Dahisar, Magathane at 3:30pm, with water being almost half-feet in most of these areas.
North-bound traffic was slow in the evening and caused hardships to people en route to their homes from offices, most of which are concentrated in the southern part of the city and Bandra etc, the official pointed out.
Western Railway suburban train services ran with a delay of 10-15 minutes through the day due to the rains, with a major cause being waterlogging at Marine Lines and Borivali stations in the south and north of the network, respectively.
WR officials said the waterlogging at Marine Lines station was caused by the construction work underway for the Coastal Road, an ambitious project being helmed by the BMC.
"Due to the Coastal Road work, excavated debris is blocking the outfall, which is why outfall culverts are operating at half capacity," WR chief public relations officer Sumit Thakur said.
However, it was refuted by BMC officials who claimed waterlogging in Marine Lines was due to closure of Patanjain outfall caused by small stones and trash being brought in by the sea waves.
On Central Railway, suburban trains were 10-15 minutes late since morning, with the operations deteriorating in the evening due to waterlogging on the tracks at the north-end of Kalyan, officials said.
Bunching of trains, railway terminology for services lining up one after the other as part of a cascading effect caused by delays, meant people were stranded at stations for long time.
A woman said her train took a 30-minute halt between Diva and Dombivali due to rain-related delays.
CR chief public relations officer Shivraj Manaspure said trains were running 20-25 minutes late due to waterlogging in Kalyan area.
A Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking spokesperson said buses on five routes in the western suburbs had to be diverted due to rain in the evening, though there were no diversions during the first half of the day.
For adjoining Thane and Palghar districts, the weather bureau has issued an 'orange' alert, with a forecast of heavy to very heavy downpour at isolated places, the official said.
The BMC had declared a holiday for all schools and colleges on Thursday.
In the 24-hour period ending at 8.30 am on Thursday, the Colaba observatory (representative of the island city) recorded 'extremely heavy' rainfall at 223.2 mm, while the Santacruz observatory (representative of suburbs) recorded 145.1 mm rainfall, as per the IMD.
