Heavy rains in Mumbai and adjoining areas on Wednesday claimed nine lives and disrupted normal life in the city where road, air and rail traffic was disrupted.
With incessant rains continuing to lash the city since Tuesday night, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) issued a high tide alert for Wednesday. BMC has put its staff on alert and has deployed lifeguards and firemen at the beaches to avert any untoward incident.
Eight persons were killed and four injured when a wall collapsed on hutments in Thane district following heavy rains.
In a separate incident, one person died after a wall collapsed at LBS Marg in Mumbai’s Mulund suburb on Wednesday morning.
The city received 60.77 mm rainfall since Tuesday. Colaba in south Mumbai received 78.6 mm and suburban Santacruz received 95.0 mm, the MET department said.
Train services on the Western line were running late by 10-15 minutes whereas on the Central line, trains were delayed by 15-20 minutes.
Airline sources said there was an average delay of one-and-a-half to two hours in flight operations due to heavy rains.
“The start-up delay is around one-and-a-half to two hours due to congestion caused by heavy rains and strong winds,” they said.
However, the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) spokesperson said, “There is an average delay of half-an-hour to 40 minutes across flights.”
Five flights have been diverted, including one Air India Chennai flight, the sources said.
Water logging has been reported at Dadar in central Mumbai, Cadbury Junction, Hind Mata and other areas, civic officials said.
Heavy rainfall is expected to continue in the city with strong gusty winds and thundershowers in parts of city and suburbs, the weatherman said.
“Any tide above 4.5 metres is coupled with heavy rains and is a matter of concern,” Joint Municipal Commissioner S. S. Shinde told PTI.
“We appeal to Mumbaikars not to venture into the sea and stay away from the coastline area as a high tide has been predicted today,” Mr. Shinde said.
In the month of June, there will be tides from June 13 to 17 measuring between 4.58 m to 4.73 m, the BMC had said.
