Mumbai rain updates: IMD issues orange alert, train services resume in city
Mumbai and its suburbs will witness heavy to very heavy rainfall for the next two days, IMD said on Saturday evening. However, Raigad and Ratnagiri districts in the Konkan are still placed under red alert. Thunderstorms with lightning, gusty winds and extremely heavy rain is expected in these two districts.
Mumbai rains have been incessant for the past four days and have disrupted normal life in the Maharashtra capital. This is the second time this year that Maharashtra is under the spell of heavy rainfall, after the impact of Cyclone Tauktae in May, which wreaked havoc.
In a major relief, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday downgraded the alert for Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Sindhudurg districts from red to orange till June 15. An orange alert denotes heavy to very heavy rainfall for an area. “Extremely heavy rainfall belt has shifted southwards. So warnings are downgraded. Still, IMD expects heavy to very heavy rainfall in the city and suburbs,” IMD Mumbai’s deputy director Shubhangi Bhute told news agency ANI on Saturday.
However, weather officials told Hindustan Times that an active rain spell is expected over the Konkan coast for a minimum of four to five days due to the formation of a low-pressure area over the north Bay of Bengal and cyclonic circulations in the Arabian Sea facilitating strong westerly winds.
Here are the latest updates:
> Mumbai has so far recorded 706.1 mm rainfall against the monthly average of 505 mm from June 1 till June 12.
> Mumbai and its suburbs will witness heavy to very heavy rainfall for the next two days, IMD said on Saturday evening. However, Raigad and Ratnagiri districts in the Konkan are still placed under red alert. Thunderstorms with lightning, gusty winds and extremely heavy rain is expected in these two districts.
> Train services in Mumbai resumed on Saturday evening as rains subsided. The services were earlier disrupted as tracks were waterlogged due to the heavy downpours in the city. Bus services were also hit as roads were submerged, making it extremely difficult for vehicles to move.
> The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) once again appealed to the residents to stay home and not venture outdoors. “Heavy rain is expected in the city tomorrow [Sunday] as well as the day after. We request you to not venture out, especially near the sea,” the civic body said in a statement.
> Even though Mumbai has seen a drastic fall in its coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases and is placed under level two as per the state government’s unlock plan, the city will be under level three of lockdown for the time being as a precautionary measure against the worsening weather conditions. BMC said the lockdown was imposed keeping in mind the city’s geographical structures, the density of population, heavy rainfall prediction and the number of people coming through local trains.
> The Powai lake started overflowing as a result of heavy rainfall in the city for the past few days, an official from BMC said. The water from the lake has a storage capacity of 5.45 billion and is utilised for industrial purposes. The civic body said Powai lake had last overflowed in July 2020.
(With agency inputs)