Heavy rain disrupts life in Mumbai, parts of Maharashtra

MUMBAI (IANS): Heavy rains continued to lash Mumbai and most parts of Maharashtra for the second consecutive day on Friday, impacting normal life across the state, officials said here. Road and rail traffic has been affected in Mumbai since Friday morning, hitting the office-bound commuters. Railway tracks have been flooded at various points on the Central Railway and Western Railway networks serving the city. Although services have been delayed by upto 30 minutes, there has been no major dislocation so far. However, owing to heavy rains in northwest Maharashtra and south Gujarat, train services on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Mumbai-New Delhi sectors were affected since early Friday, according to officials. Valsad in south Gujarat was among the worst-hit with two feet water-logging in the station, preventing movement of local and long-distance trains. A railway official said that several trains in both directions on the two routes (Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Mumbai-New Delhi) have been regulated at various stations until the water levels recede. In adjoining Thane district, railway tracks were flooded at Nalla Sopara, Mumbra, Thane, Diva and other places, leading to train delays on all the routes. In Mumbai, several low-lying areas have been waterlogged in the city and suburbs, hitting vehicular movement badly. An extra high tide, measuring 4.26 metres, is expected from 2.30pm onwards and officials are apprehensive the situation could worsen if the rainfall continued. According to Mumbai Weather Bureau, since 9am, south Mumbai received an average one cm while suburbs averaged 1.62 cms rainfall. Weather Bureau director VK Rajeev said that heavy rains are expected to continue lashing Mumbai, coastal Konkan and other parts of the state for the next two days. Till date, Mumbai city has received nearly 55 percent and suburbs averaged 47 percent of the annual rainfall quota.