Traffic across Mumbai was affected yet again as the city received another bout of heavy rainfall on Monday morning. Traffic was crawling on nearly all arterial roads, with diversions at a few locations due to waterlogging.
Key roads that were affected include the Western Express Highway, SV Road, Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR), LBS Road, Andheri-Kurla Road and the Sion-Panvel Highway. Several commuters and motorists, who were stuck on these roads for over 90 minutes, highlighted the extent of the traffic snarls, on social media and eslewehere.
Lokendra Pandit, a rickshaw driver, said, “It took me over two hours to reach SEEPZ from Hiranandani Powai via JVLR. The distance is less than 10 km.”
To the brim: Water accumulates in the Andheri subway, making it unusable on Monday morning.
Private vehicles and BEST buses had to be diverted at Gandhi Market in King Circle, Sion and Milan Subway for a few hours due to severe waterlogging.
Several other spots in Andheri, Matunga, Sion, Malad, Goregaon, Bhandup and Dahisar also experienced waterlogging which further slowed down traffic.
To add to commuters’ woes, the Monorail services were also affected after a tyre of one of the rakes burst at Chembur station. “One Monorail rake was stuck at Chembur station due to the incident for around 90 minutes. Two more rakes were in service during the same period,” Dilip Kawathkar, spokesperson for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, said. Services were running with a delay of nearly one hour during the period.
The Mithi river flows to capacity near the Mumbai airport.
Despite the rain, the suburban railway network on Central Railway and Western Railway was functional, with trains running around 10 to 15 minutes late due to poor visibility. Central Railway had deployed around a 100 staff members to ensure the tracks were not waterlogged.
Services were affected for over three hours between Karjat and Khopoli, after a minor landslide near Lowjee station at 2.05 p.m. resulted in wet soil covering a section of the tracks. Services resumed by around 5.30 p.m.
