Mumbai airport ?open? but not functional
The airport, which sees heavy traffic on a normal day, ?opened? at 5 pm with limited facilities ? only for priority landing.
No flights, trains or buses to waterworld Mumbai. And even if you manage to reach the city, stay indoors. The financial capital of the country has declared a rainy day.
Heavy rains continued to lash the city for the second consecutive day on Wednesday. Airport authorities informed various airlines that they cannot operate until noon on Thursday as the runway was submerged under water.
The airport, which sees heavy traffic on a normal day, “opened” at 5 pm with limited facilities — only for priority landing. Aircraft which cited low fuel reserves, passenger emergencies or excessive delays were allowed to land. For those who landed, the joy was shortlived as they found themselves stranded at the airport as road traffic had come to a standstill.
While international flights, including that of Air-India, have been diverted to Delhi and Ahmedabad, several airlines have decided against taking risks. Emirates cancelled its operations to Mumbai till such time as the airport starts functioning again. British Airways too either diverted or cancelled its flight to Mumbai.
Aircraft are not permitted to land since visibility at the airport was 2500 metres against the required 4,800 metres. Instruments that make landing at low visibility possible (the instrument landing system) were also damaged.
Several passengers are stranded in Mumbai as flights have not taken off since Tuesday. It was the same story on the rail tracks too as the Indian Railways either cancelled or diverted trains. Local trains too did not budge.
The rains paralysed commercial activities in the state as several industrial units remained closed. Assocham president Mahendra K Sanghi said the rains in Mumbai, Pune and other parts of the Maharashtra have caused a loss of over Rs 1,000 crore.
Meanwhile, the RBI has declared Wednesday and Thursday a bank holiday. The BSE and NSE will be also remained closed on Thursday.
Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said torrential rains in the state had so far claimed 99 lives and helicopters were pressed into service in the worst-affected Raigad district and in Mumbai for relief-and-rescue operations.
The Army, Navy and Air Force personnel have been deployed in the affected areas, he said.