Mumbai/Thane, Sep 8 (PTI) Heavy rains lashed Mumbai and its adjoining areas on Thursday evening, disrupting road traffic and suburban train services on the Central Railway (CR)’s Main Line due to water-logging on tracks, while four persons were injured in two wall collapse incidents and a boy was washed away in Thane city, said officials.
The rains started at around 4:30pm in several parts of Mumbai, with the downpour getting intense between 5pm and 6pm, leading to some spots getting more than 50 millimetres (mm) in the one-hour period, a civic official said.
Some areas in north Mumbai witnessed 60 to 90 mm rainfall in a couple of hours, they said.
“The area under S (civic) Ward received 51 mm rainfall between 5pm and 6pm, while F South ward got 35 mm. The area near the Building Proposal office received 45 mm. The area around Bhandup Complex got 42 mm and Gavanpada in Mulund (East) witnessed 34 mm rainfall,” he said.
The CR’s Main Line bore the brunt of the downpour, causing hardship to commuters during the evening rush hours.
A disaster management department officer said train services on the Central Railway were stopped between 7.50 pm and 8.20 pm due to water-logging on tracks at Kalwa and Thane stations.
Suburban services on the busy corridor were crippled in the night due to water-logging on tracks in Thane and Diva sections and decoupling of a goods train near Titwala station, Railway officials said.
Services between Mumbai CSMT-Khopoli and Mumbai CSMT-Kasara sections, on both fast and slow corridors, were thrown out of gear for a few hours, they said.
According to the officials, rainwater accumulated on rail tracks at Kalwa in Thane district. Due to track inundation, train services on fast line were completely stopped for sometime, while those on slow line were delayed.
Apart from Kalwa, water-logging was also reported from low-lying areas in Dadar, Parel, Sion, Nahur, Byculla (all Mumbai) and Thane station. However, water level receded after rains stopped, the officials said.
“Main Line (Mumbai CSMT-Kalyan/Karjat/Kasara corridors) local trains were running late by 20 to 55 minutes due to very heavy rain,” Shivaji Sutar, chief public relations officer, Central Railway (CR), told PTI in the evening.
The intensity of showers reduced after 6:30pm, he said.
The problem was compounded by a Kasara-bound goods train from Kalyan uncoupling between Ambivali and Titwala stations at 6:20pm. The problem was rectified and the train resumed its journey at 6:45pm, a CR official said.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said water-logging was reported at some low-lying spots in the city and suburbs, which slowed down civic-run buses on some routes.
The disruption in suburban services caused a lot of hardship to commuters returning home from office during the evening peak hours. Crowds at several suburban stations, including Mumbai CSMT, swelled as the timetable of trains went for a toss.
Many spent two to three hours travelling between Ghatkopar (Mumbai) and Dombivali (Thane) stations, a journey that usually takes less one hour. Several passengers were stranded on trains from more than an hour and they jumped from compartments and walked on tracks.
“Took me 3 hrs to reach from Ghatkopar to Dombivli #MumbaiRains #CentralRailway,” Neha Divekar, a commuter, said in her Twitter post.
At around 10 pm, over three hours after the rains stopped, the Main Line trains were running 30 to 45 minutes late, the officials said.
Many low-lying areas in Kurla, Andheri, Malad, Borivali and Kandivali were also submerged, badly affecting road traffic.
“Walked 5kms today as the car broke down and did not get any auto in the rains .. blisters and horrible back pain..,” a harried motorist, Priyanka Sareen, said on Twitter.
An auto-rickshaw passenger, Shailesh Chandak, tweeted, “In Mumbai, you should know finance and traffic (in rain) navigation..2.5 km covered and 57 min waiting.” Thane received 71.12 mm rainfall between 5:30 pm and 6:30pm, inundating several areas and affecting train services, while multiple incidents of wall collapse were reported in the city.
Two persons were injured when a wall collapsed amid heavy rains in Thane city’s Wagle Estate locality, the Thane Municipal Corporation’s PRO said in a release without providing further details.
The official said a four-year-old boy, Aditya Mourya, was washed away when he accidentally fell into a flooded nullah in Kalwa.
A frantic search was on to trace him, he said.
The TMC’s Regional Disaster Management Cell (RDMC) said in another incident in the Wagle Estate area, a wall of a house in a ‘chawl’ (old row tenement) caved in on Thursday night, injuring two persons, Amol Kapadne and Deepali Nikam, who have been admitted to a local hospital.
He said the protection wall of a building in Sonali Nagar also collapsed due to heavy rains, but there was no casualty.
“Personnel from the RDMC, other civic departments and police were on the ground to tackle the situation. Thane city received 71.12 mm rainfall between 5:30pm and 6:30pm,” RDMC chief Avinash Sawant told PTI.
Some nullahs (drains) were overflowing, officials said.
The retention wall of a ‘nullah’ and the compound wall of a housing society in Mahatma Phule Nagar in the city collapsed due to heavy rains at around 7:30 pm, they said.
The retention wall of an adjacent building as well as a part of another structure tilted amid rains, they added.
In a similar incident, the protection wall of a nullah in Majiwada collapsed due to downpour, but no one was injured, the officials said.
Anita Jawanjal, the District Disaster Control Officer of Thane, is monitoring the situation. PTI KK COR GK BNM RSY RSY
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