The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has declared a holiday for all government and private pre-schools, primary and secondary schools as well as junior colleges in the city on Thursday, after the IMD issued a “red alert” for the metropolis.
“In view of the red alert issued for Mumbai, the BMC has declared a holiday for all municipal, government-run and private primary, secondary and higher secondary schools and all colleges in the city and suburbs on Thursday as safety of students is a top priority,” said a circular issued by the BMC Education Officer (Primary) Rajesh Kankal.
“The BMC requests all citizens to stay alert, remain indoors and kindly follow instructions from the administration,” Iqbal Singh Chahal, municipal commissioner and administrator of the BMC, said on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, six persons, including five women, died after being struck by lightning in four places in Chandrapur district in the last 24 hours, police officials said. Two women, aged 45 and 47, working in a paddy field died on the spot in a lightning strike at Delanwadi village in Sindewahi tehsil, some 75 km from the district headquarters, on Wednesday, an official said. Lightning killed a 35-year-old woman at Betala village in Bramhapuri tehsil, nearly 125 km from Chandrapur, and a farmer in Korpana tehsil on Wednesday, said local police officials.
On Tuesday evening, a 35-year-old woman died in a lightning strike in Gondpipari tehsil, said another official.
Incessant rain pounded the city on Wednesday, following which the Tansa and Vihar lakes overflowed.
The Vihar lake, located in Sanjay Gandhi National Park, overflowed at 12.48 am, while the Tansa lake, in Thane district, overflowed at 4.35 am on Wednesday.
Tulsi, the smallest among the seven lakes that supply water to the city, overflowed on July 20.
Vihar lake contributes 90 million litres (ML) of water to Mumbai everyday while Tansa lake supplies 455 ML of water daily.
Despite heavy rainfall, the stock of water in the seven lakes is the lowest in the last three years at 59 per cent of their total capacity and this would be sufficient for the next six months only.
At present, the total water stock in the lakes is 8.52 lakh ML, while it was 12.67 lakh ML in 2022 and 9.64 lakh ML in 2021. The lakes must have 14.47 lakh ML water stock on October 1, to be sufficient for the whole year.
According to BMC, 1% of the water stock is equal to three days of supply and thus the current stock is sufficient for 177 days. As such, the civic authorities have decided to continue the 10% water cut, which has been imposed since July 1, officials said.
Other lakes such as the Bhatsa have (49%), Upper Vaitarna (31%), Middle Vaitarna (68%) and Modak Sagar (88%) stock of their total capacity. “We will review the water stock in the next few days and decide about increasing the water cut,” said a senior civic official.
