City gets second highest 24-hour July rain in 5 years

Heavy rain for the second consecutive day led to waterlogging in 13 spots on Sunday. The disruptions exposed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s monsoon preparedness,

Heavy rain for the second consecutive day led to waterlogging in 13 spots on Sunday. The disruptions exposed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s monsoon preparedness, including desilting and cleaning of nullahs. The suburbs received heavy rain, whereas the island city saw light showers throughout the day.

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Chronic flooding spots of Parel, Chembur, Khar, Andheri, Jogeshwari, Malad and Dahisar were waterlogged for a couple of hours. Routes for Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) buses, Bandra National college via Linking Road, SV Road via Linking Road, were diverted. Suburban railways ferrying only essential staffers remained uninterrupted.

A portion of a balcony of a dilapidated building in Bandra’s Nirmal Nagar collapsed on Sunday morning. No one was injured in the incident. The heavy rain on Saturday midnight also lead to collapse of a balcony of a ground plus 10 storey building in Mazagaon. Civic officials who visited the site said the building was not in a dilapidated condition, however, residents decided to move out of it. It was also later found that owing to heavy rains over the weekend, water had gotten accumulated in the balcony leading to its collapse.

Leader of Opposition in BMC, Ravi Raja, alleged claims of monsoon preparedness turned out to be false. He added, “BMC commissioner’s claim of completing 113% desilting of drains turned out to be hollow. The contractors claimed to meet the desilting target by mixing debris in the garbage dumped from the sewer at several places. These contractors should face legal action.”

BMC recieved 75 complaints of tree/branch crashes from various areas of the city, 16 of short-circuits and five of wall collapse. No one was injured in either of the incidents. A high tide (4m) is expected on Monday at 12.17am midnight and of 4.72 meters at 1.06am. Powai lake also overflowed on Sunday morning. A senior civic officer of BMC’s hydraulics department said, “Around 6am, the Powai lake overflowed. Data on lake levels for the seven lakes that provide drinking water to Mumbai is being compiled following Saturday’s rain.” Meanwhile, two flights had to be diverted. One Navy aircaft had to be diverted to Pune around 9.45am and a Swiss Air flight from Zurich had to be diverted to Hyderabad at 10.58am.