The city witnessed heavy rainfall for the second consecutive day on Friday, resulting in waterlogging and traffic snarls, with BEST diverting buses on several routes. A landslide near an under-construction building at Pedder Road on Thursday midnight resulted in a cracked footpath along the stretch.
While the Colaba observatory recorded 227.8 mm rainfall till 8.30 am on Friday, the Santacruz observatory recorded 175 mm of rainfall. Rainfall recorded by the Colaba observatory was the highest one-day rainfall since 2015. On July 16, 2014, it had recorded 228 mm of rainfall in one day. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), rainfall between 115.6 mm and 204.4 mm is considered ‘very heavy’.
An IMD official said, “Intense showers that Mumbai is witnessing are owing to the offshore trough and sustained strong westerly winds. This is likely to subside by the weekend.”
The total rain recorded this far at Colaba is 589 mm, that is 25 mm above normal, while the Santacruz observatory has recorded 467 mm of rain, that is 99 mm below normal.
On Friday morning, there was waterlogging at Sion Road no. 24, Chembur, Sundar Baug Kamani, Veera Desai Road, and Sarodapada in the western suburbs. Due to water logging in Sion, BEST diverted its several buses from Road no. 24 to Road no. 3. Through the day, 23 trees fell and four incidents of walls/ parts of houses collapsing, but no injuries were reported.
At the Pedder Road landslide spot, there was no one along the footpath, so no casualties were reported. The landslide took place when the piling work of the building was underway, sources said. Assistant Municipal Commissioner of D-Ward Prashant Gaikwad said, “We have called in a structural consultant and a geologist to examine the situation. The cracked footpath will be repaired.” A similar landslide incident was reported in the area in 2011, the locals said.
