Rain breaks dry spell, opens civic wounds

Offering some respite from the sweltering heat, the heavy rain on Monday once again exposed the pathetic civic condition of the city with complaints of waterlogged roads, traffic jams and disrupted rail services pouring in.

Offering some respite from the sweltering heat, the heavy rain on Monday once again exposed the pathetic civic condition of the city with complaints of waterlogged roads, traffic jams and disrupted rail services pouring in.

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With Mumbai experiencing heavy showers since Sunday night, there were complaints of waterlogging from Mahalaxmi, Hindmata in Dadar, Parel, Sion Koliwada, Byculla, Kalachowki, Kurla, Chembur and Andheri (West).

"The situation was extremely bad during the morning peak hours," said an officer from the Mumbai traffic police, adding that the BEST bus routes in certain areas were diverted due to the flooding.

While trains on the Central Railway were running 15-20 minutes, signal failures at six spots on the Central and Harbour line led to as many as 30 trains being cancelled. However, railway authorities claimed the services were normalised by evening.

"Signals on the down line at Dadar, Vidyavihar and Byculla on the main line developed a snag in the morning.. There were technical problems at Mankhurd and Chembur on Harbour line as well, but none of these were related to the rain," said AK Singh, PRO, Central Railway.

Also, affected was the traffic on the Western and the Eastern Express Highway. "Heavy traffic was reported at the Western Express Highway between 10am and 11am. The situation came under control only after noon," said P Temkar, senior inspector, Vakola traffic police.

Slow moving traffic was reported on the Bandra-Worli sea link as well as on SV Road and Link Road between Bandra and Kandivli.

"When I saw the traffic on the road, I decided to travel by train. But I ended up reaching my destination later than usual," said Sunita Naik, 35, a teacher and Ghatkopar resident.

The heavy showers, however, did little to fill the lakes. In the past two days, there was an increase of only 14,566 million litre. This means only four days of water was added to the current stock.