400 evacuated from Mumbai’s Kranti Nagar as Mithi river swells to ‘dangerous’ level

In just the first two months and four days this monsoon, Mumbai has already received its entire seasonal average rainfall.

At least 400 people living on the banks of Mithi river in Mumbai were evacuated by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) amid threat of their homes submerging in the waters of the swollen river on Sunday morning.

Waterlogging at Postal colony in Chembur as heavy rains continue to lash Mumbai. (Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

The Disaster Management (DM) department evacuated residents of Kranti Nagar in Kurla, and moved them to nearby Bazarwad municipal school, where they are being provided food and water and are being attended to by doctors.

The residents were asked to carry only cash and important documents.

Watch: Heavy rain causes havoc in Mumbai again, train services affected

Mithi’s water level touched ‘dangerous’ mark at 3.5 metres at 7am and rose to 4 metres at 9.15 am.

“We started evacuating people when water level touched 3.5 metres in Mithi. On Sunday, we shifted residents of Kranti Nagar area as it was most vulnerable,” said senior disaster management official.

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In just the first two months and four days this monsoon, Mumbai has already received its entire seasonal average rainfall.

The southwest monsoon spans across four months for Mumbai from June to September, which means excess rainfall will continue for the remainder of the season.

The Mumbai suburbs weather observatory recorded 204 mm (very heavy) rain over 24 hours (8.30am Saturday to 8.30am Sunday) taking the tally for the season to 2,374.2 mm against the seasonal average of 2,317.2mm.

Last monsoon, the city recorded 2,239.6mm rain over four months, which was 77.6mm less than the season’s average. In 2017, the city had recorded 3,029.9mm rain, highest in six years.

Over the last 48 hours, Mumbai received 337.9 mm rain which took it past the annual average.