Rain brings Mumbai to a halt again

Between 8am and 5.30pm on Wednesday, the city recorded 102mm rain, eastern suburbs received 169mm and western suburbs got 137mm, the IMD said.

As heavy rain lashed Mumbai and its suburbs on Wednesday, the city witnessed flooded areas, disrupted train services, halted traffic and stranded citizens, even as the India Meteorological Department issued a red alert for the next four days in some of the districts of the state, including Mumbai.

Heavy waterlogging was reported in the Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road. (Pratik Chorge / HT Photo)

“The southwest monsoon has come in two days earlier than usual this year, as predicted by the meteorology department. There will be intense rains in Mumbai for at least a period of three to four days now...,” said a spokesperson with the IMD’s regional forecasting centre in Mumbai.

Between 8am and 5.30pm on Wednesday, the city recorded 102mm rain, eastern suburbs received 169mm and western suburbs got 137mm, the IMD said.

Municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal and mayor Kishori Pednekar blamed the excess rain within a short time for the city’s flooding woes.

“No one claimed that there will be no waterlogging in Mumbai due to heavy rain, nor can anyone make such a claim. But after waterlogging, if the water does not recede within four hours, we can say that pre-monsoon work has not been done properly,” said Pednekar.

Chahal said, “Between 9am and 10am, areas like Sion and Chunabhatti received 55-60 mm rain. Owing to this, rain water flooded railway tracks. Road and railway traffic is affected only at three spots, namely Dahisar subway, Sion and Chunabhatti.”

Meanwhile, the city’s flooding situation prompted chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to visit BMC’s disaster management control room to take stock of the situation.

“On Wednesday, the chief minister asked authorities to ensure that residents of the coastal belt are not inconvenienced and relief work be started wherever needed. The CM also told them to ensure that rains do not impact Covid hospitals and also the patients being treated for other ailments. He directed authorities in Mumbai to keep the pumping stations functional to drain out rainwater expeditiously,” the CMO said, as quoted by PTI.

While the BMC blamed excess rain and high tide for the waterlogging, citizens pointed out the insufficient cleaning by authorities.

A BMC official said, “This heavy rain coincided with high tide at 11.45am, because of which many nullahs (stormwater drains) and rivers were not able to empty the water into the sea. In all, we had installed 189 dewatering pumps at 445 locations.”

Activists said rainwater accumulated across several areas in the morning did not drain out even by 4pm, despite the rain receding.

Nikhil Desai, a resident of Matunga and a civic activist, said, “The BMC claims there was waterlogging due to high tide, but waterlogging started at 9am. Also, after both high tide and rain stopped, water did not drain out immediately. It was only at 7pm that the water drained out. This has exposed the preparations done by BMC for monsoon.”

Meanwhile, corporators across party lines slammed the BMC and the mayor. Ravi Raja, leader of Opposition in the BMC and Congress corporator, said, “The mayor herself has indicated that one cannot stop water logging in the city. So, I feel the administration should come out in the open and say that waterlogging cannot not happen. Like every year, it is clear now that all tall claims made by the BMC get washed off in the first spell of rain.”

The IMD on Tuesday issued a yellow warning for the city, but by afternoon it was upgraded to a red alert, warning of very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall. An orange alert has been issued by the IMD till Sunday.