Rains lash city, to continue for next two days

Mumbai faced heavy rainfall disrupting traffic and causing waterlogging, with alerts issued and evacuations in Navi Mumbai as systems struggled to cope.

MUMBAI: After a brief lull this month, incessant rainfall lashed the city on Sunday night and Monday morning, disrupting systems and causing traffic snarls. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) changed its yellow alert for the city to an orange one in the morning, indicating very heavy rainfall accompanied by gusty winds and thunderstorms.

Mumbai, India – 15, Sept 2025: People walk through water logging street at Bhendi Bazar, in Mumbai, India, on Monday, Sept 15, 2025. (Photo by Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo)

Heavy to very heavy rainfall and thunderstorms with gusty winds occurred at isolated places in Mumbai, Palghar, Thane, Raigad and Ratnagiri. The yellow alert for Palghar and Mumbai will continue till September 17, in Thane and Ratnagiri till September 18 and for Raigad till September 19.

“Although the overall monsoon withdrawal has started early, in Mumbai it will most likely begin in October,” confirmed an IMD official. The monsoon withdrawal in the city is expected to happen from October 8.

Areas in the island city, like Sewri, Worli, Grant Road, CSMT, Dadar, Matunga and Breach Candy saw the most rainfall. Coinciding with the high tide, this caused waterlogging in several areas, including Dadar, Gandhi Market, Worli and Mahalaxmi junction. JJ Flyover also saw flooding.

“On Monday, a trough from cyclonic circulation entered from the eastern side close to Matheran and became less marked in the island city, which caused a higher amount of rainfall in the island city,” said Rajesh Kapadia, author of a blog called ‘Vagaries of Weather’.

In nine hours, from 8.30am to 5.30pm, the Santacruz Observatory logged 24.7mm of rainfall while the Colaba observatory logged 29.6 mm. As per the BMC’s automatic weather station, the island city logged 32.77 mm of rainfall, while the eastern and western suburbs logged 31 mm and 37.59 mm respectively in the same period.

In the western suburbs, Andheri Subway, Juhu Circle, and the National College area in Bandra saw waterlogging. A landslide occurred from a hill near the Shiv Bhagtani Manor CHS in Powai at around 2.30pm, damaging several parked cars.

While Western Railway services were only mildly affected, Central Railway trains ran late by 15 to 20 minutes and were further affected after a goods train suffered technical failure and came to a halt between Badlapur and Ambernath stations around 12.55pm. Water accumulation on the railway tracks in the morning hours slowed down services at Bandra, Kurla, Dadar, Sion and Byculla. On the Harbour Line, the ground floors of Khandeshwar and Mansarovar railway stations were submerged under one and a half feet of water.

In Navi Mumbai and the surrounding regions of Panvel and Uran, the torrential downpour crippled the local train network, and forced the emergency evacuation of over 400 people from their homes in Panvel.

“The water began rising around 3am,” recounted a resident. “Within an hour, it was inside our homes. We are thankful the municipal teams got us out safely to the refuge centre.” A Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation official said that the civic body’s teams had been on the ground since the deluge began. “The volume of rain in such a short period overwhelmed many systems,” he said.

In Uran, the heavy rains disrupted the first day of school after a holiday, caused power outages and left farmers in despair. A farmer from a village in eastern Uran said, “The water isn’t draining from the fields, and we are already seeing a blight on the paddy saplings. If this continues, the entire crop could be lost.”