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Deluge shuts down Mumbai, again
With just 170 mm of rain, not even one-fourth of what Mumbai had received on 26/7 (944 mm), the city came to a standstill. Normal life was crippled as heavy rains that had started on Monday night lashed the city, flooding roads and disrupting railway services. Mithi river rose above the danger mark. See pics
With just 170 mm of rain, not even one-fourth of what Mumbai had received on 26/7 (944 mm), the city came to a standstill.
Normal life was crippled on Tuesday as heavy rains that had started Monday night lashed the city, flooding roads, disrupting railway services and forcing early closure of schools, colleges and offices.
The Mithi crossed the danger mark in the afternoon, and 140 people staying along its banks had to be evacuated. Normalcy was restored only in the evening after rain water levels receded.
Lakhs of commuters were stranded for hours as suburban railway services were thrown out of gear.
Western Railway ran its trains half-an-hour late till 5 pm, and while there was a 30-min delay on the Central and harbour lines for most of the day, services came to a complete halt from 2.30 pm and 5.30 pm.
On the roads, the scene was just as bad.
Water logged at all the chronic spots, causing traffic snarls. The Milan subway and Andheri subway were closed for hours.
All this despite the fact that the BMC has already spent over Rs 450 crore for the Brihanmumbai Storm Water Drains Project — a Rs 1,800 crore project to upgrade the city’s 100-year-old storm water drains.
The BMC still defended itself. “The situation was under control and much better than last year. Once the storm water project is completed, we will have better control over the water-logging problem,” said additional municipal commissioner R. A Rajeev.
