Title - Rain lashes city, throws rail services out of gear

The season’s first heavy showers on Thursday morning threw normal life out of gear with Central Railway (CR) services seriously crippled and nearly four million suburban railway commuters on the main and harbour lines stuck for long hours in trains and at stations. The CR administration admitted that rain had caused signal failures at several stations.

The heavy rain caused a technical glitch in signals at Kurla, Ghatkopar and Vikhroli on the main line leading to an average delay of around 25 to 30 minutes. On the harbour line, signals at Mankhurd, Chembur and Kurla developed snags. Trains were running more than an hour late on both lines during the morning peak hours. The CR cancelled 148 suburban services till 5 pm.

“The drains parallel to railway tracks in the Ghatkopar-Kurla section overflowed and this was a contributory factor,” a CR spokesperson said. Western Railway services were also delayed by around 20 to 30 minutes during the morning peak hours due to flooding and track failure at Malad station.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s automatic weather stations recorded the highest rainfall at Borivali (West) where 166 mm of rainfall was recorded between 6 am and 6 pm on Thursday. The other locations where high rainfall (more than 100 mm in 12 hours) was recorded were Bandra-Kurla Complex, Kurla (West) and Chincholi in Malad (West).

Complaints of severe waterlogging were received across 11 locations in the eastern suburbs, 19 locations in the western suburbs and six locations in the island city. The areas that saw the most flooding included the Malad Subway, where traffic had to be diverted, parts of Andheri subway, Ghatkopar near Shreyas Cinema and Hindmata area in Dadar.

The total number of draining pumps made operational by the BMC’s stormwater drainage system was 11 in the island city, 47 in the eastern suburbs and 22 in the western suburbs. These pumps are started when waterlogging level rises above 0.25 metres.

According to traffic police officers, no major traffic jams were reported but owing to delayed train services and waterlogging, snarls were seen at Suman Nagar junction on the Eastern Express Highway, Milan Subway in Santacruz, Hindmata junction in Dadar, S V Road from Bandra to Andheri, Western Express Highway from Malad to Borivali, Andheri-Kurla Road, among others.

Occasional spells of moderate to heavy rainfall are likely to continue in the city over the next 24 hours. Officials from the Mumbai Regional Centre of the India Meteorological Department said consistent heavy rainfall is not expected but spells are likely through Friday.

Five instances of trees uprooting were reported in the island city, 12 trees were uprooted in the eastern suburbs and nine in the western suburbs. A total of four instances of wall collapse were reported from across the city, injuring two persons.