Mumbai crippled on Day 1 of monsoon, red alert issued | 10 points
On just the first day of monsoon on Monday, Mumbai experienced its highest monsoon rainfall in 107 years, causing severe waterlogging and delays in transport.
Southwest Monsoon's early arrival in Maharashtra's Mumbai wreaked havoc on the city's civic infrastructure as roads and tracks got heavily waterlogged across several parts of the city, resulting in trains and flights getting delayed and an underground metro station also getting flooded.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) nowcast at 3 pm showed that an intense spell of rain is very likely at isolated places across the Mumbai district during the next 3-4 hours, accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds in some areas.
Mumbai rain | Key updates
• Highest rain in 107 years: Mumbai, India's financial capital, received 63.5mm rainfall in the past 24 hours, causing waterlogging in at least six places, Maharashtra CMO said on Monday afternoon. The city on Monday recorded its highest rainfall in 107 years on just the first day of monsoon. Eighteen incidents of rain-induced short circuit and five incidents of wall collapse were reported by noon.
• Earliest monsoon arrival in 75 years: According to IMD, this early onset of the Southwest Monsoon marked the earliest arrival of seasonal rain in 75 years in Maharashtra and Mumbai. In Mumbai, monsoon arrived 16 days early. The normal date for monsoon's arrival in Mumbai is around June 11.
• Red alert: The weather agency extended the red alert warning for Mumbai till 8.30 am on Tuesday, warning of extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places. A yellow alert, forecasting heavy rainfall at isolated places, was issued for May 27-28, and moderate rainfall is likely to continue over this weekend, the IMD said.
• Govt employees allowed to leave offices early: Given the pounding rain, the state government issued an order urging all its employees to leave for their homes at 4 pm. Areas of posh South Bombay, including Nariman Point, Colaba, Mantralaya, Bombay High Court etc., were also inundated.
• CM speaks to officials: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis spoke with chief secretary and officials from the state disaster management agency and ordered an immediate survey of losses due to rain. Deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde also took stock of the rain situation during his visit to the state disaster control room at Mantralaya.
• One dead in Raigad district: One person died in a lightning strike in Maharashtra's Raigad, while 48 people were rescued from inundated areas across places in Maharashtra, including Mumbai, on Monday, the office of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said.
• NDRF, Navy on alert: The state disaster management agency urged the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to deploy 10 teams in several parts of the city and other coastal districts like Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara. Deputy CM Eknath Shinde said all agencies, including BMC, Army, and Navy, are on alert to work in coordination.
• Metro stations flooded: Flooding due to water seepage was reported at the under-construction Acharya Atrey Chowk metro station, located along Dr Annie Besant Road. Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation said the entry/exit structure, where water seepage was reported, was still under construction and is not accessible to citizens. “Our engineering and safety teams are on-site and working on a war footing to address the issue,” it said.
• Metro operations hit: Due to water seepage, metro train services between Worli and Acharya Atrey Chowk were temporarily suspended. However, the train services from Aarey JVLR to Worli are not affected and are running regularly.
• Opposition slams govt: Shiv Sena(UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray slammed the Mahayuti government for flooding. “This is not the first rain. Last week, the Andheri subway was submerged under water. So the government and BMC are responsible for the situation in Mumbai. Mumbai is paying the price of corruption by ruling parties in BMC and controlling BMC from Mantralaya. What so called 'Infra Man' did to the city?” he asked.
(With inputs from Saurabha Kulshreshtha, Shashank Rao, Yogesh Naik, Snehal Vivienne and Shailesh Gaikwad in Mumbai)
