A weary Mumbai gets a month’s rain in 3 days

Mumbai faced heavy rainfall, recording 550mm in 81 hours, causing severe flooding, traffic chaos, and school closures, with more rain expected.

MUMBAI: Three days of pounding rain left Mumbai bedraggled and weary on Monday, but it wasn’t only because several places had breached the 150-mm mark – it was because, in just 81 hours, from Friday to Monday evening, Mumbai recorded 550mm of rain, just 10mm short of the average for the entire month of August.

It rained consistently through the day. Several places had breached the 150-mm mark. (Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times)

After a brief lull on Sunday, the monsoon returned with full force. The city woke up to a consistent downpour on Monday, and by afternoon, social media was flooded with images and videos of waterlogging, stalled traffic, delayed trains, wall collapses and tree falls.

From 6am to 2pm, when the rain was heaviest, people struggled to make their way through waist-deep water at Dadar TT, Hindmata and Hindu Colony. Roads in Wadala and Matunga were flooded, while in the eastern suburbs, Kurla station, Vikhroli and the Mankhurd subway went under.

In the western suburbs, the Andheri subway, a flood-prone spot, was shut in the morning, while the Malad and Poisar subways too saw closures. By evening, the Elphinstone bridge was also shut as Parel experienced serious waterlogging.

“There was water-logging all the way from Prabhadevi to Pedder Road,” said Chetan Kamble, a resident of Dadar. “My 10-15 minute commute took 45 minutes due to the increased traffic and flooded streets. While Lower Parel was not all that bad, Mahalaxmi to Pedder Road was choked,” he said.

“I spent 5 hours travelling and four hours in the office on Monday,” said Malad resident Pratik Salgaonkar. “It took me three hours to get from Malad to Tardeo. I spent two hours alone trying to navigate the 9 km stretch from Nesco to the Vakola flyover, not due to waterlogging, but due to the rain and potholes.”

The Matunga police were superheroes in yellow capes on Monday, rescuing school children trapped in a marooned school bus. The policemen coaxed them out and, with the children clinging to them, they carried them to safety.

Many places in Andheri too were waterlogged, including Veera Desai Road, SV Road, Link Road, near Bhavan’s College and Lokhandwala Circle, till late afternoon. Ghatkopar, Vile Parle near Mithibai College, Sion and Goregaon East too saw extreme flooding.

While the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Mumbai, had forecast heavy rainfall, the alert for Monday was escalated from orange (heavy to very heavy rain) to red (extremely heavy rain, likely to cause disruption and damage) at 11:20am. This prompted the BMC to declare a holiday for schools and colleges in the afternoon.

“The heavy rain was caused due to a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal and the formation of an east-west trough over the Arabian Sea,” said Sushma Nair, scientist at IMD. “The synoptic conditions are expected to persist for yet another day before it starts subsiding.”

By 2pm, when the rain had largely subsided, several places had crossed the 150-mm mark. These were Dadar, Worli, Wadala and Sion in the island city; Versova, Bandra, Khar-Danda and BKC in the western suburbs; and Chembur, Mankhurd and Vikhroli in the eastern suburbs.

The seven lakes that supply water to Mumbai are at 91.18% capacity. Vihar lake, after Tulsi Lake on Saturday, started overflowing at 2:45pm on Monday.

There’s more to come. After a lull on Monday evening, a red alert has been sounded for Monday night and Tuesday. In view of this, schools and colleges in Mumbai and Thane will remain shut on Tuesday.

(Inputs by Shreya Jachak)