For the second day in a row, Mumbai continued to be battered by heavy rain, which threw normal life out of gear and caused waterlogging and power outages at several places. The Colaba observatory recorded the highest single day rainfall in the last 46 years on Wednesday -- 293.8mm.
Gusty winds led to the uprooting of many trees and inflicted structural damage in several areas. By evening, Santacruz had received 65.8mm rain, IMD officials added.
ADVISORY FOR TODAY: In an advisory issued on Wednesday, Mumbai Police tweeted, "Mumbai is expected to receive heavy rain at isolated places tomorrow as well. We urge all to not step out unless necessary and stay away from water bodies & water logged areas. Citizens are requested to take all precautions & #Dial100 in case of an emergency."
Mumbai has already recorded 64 per cent of its monthly quota of rain in the first five days of August.
In the last 24 hours (8am to 8pm on Wednesday) the island city region received 215.8mm of rainfall while the eastern and western suburbs recorded 101.9mm and 76.03mm, respectively. Mumbai surpassed its seasonal rainfall target on Wednesday, while Dahanu, 130km north of Mumbai, recorded its highest all-time 24 hour rainfall, breaking a 75-year-old record.
K S Hosalikar, deputy director general of IMD, western region, tweeted on Wednesday evening: "As per satellite images there are dense clouds over west coast, especially over north Konkan, Mumbai and around. Intense spells of rains are very likely. There is a red alert in Thane, Raigad and Palghar as well."
GUSTY WIND: South Mumbai bore the brunt of the onslaught, with waterlogging on several roads and in low-lying areas and the situation was compounded by wind gusts at 60-70km/hr in Colaba, vrooming up to 107km/hr around 5-6pm, the IMD said. Several trees were felled by strong winds, damaging several vehicles in the process, civic officials said. On Wednesday morning, Marine Lines recorded wind speeds of 101.9 km/hour. According to local residents, roads turned into rivers, forcing people to wade through waist-deep water.
JASLOK DAMAGE: Gusty winds led to claddings/ shaft panel falling off at the Jaslok Hospital in south Mumbai, and there was waterlogging at the state government-run J J Hospital, where doctors were seen wading through ankle-deep water.
BSE SIGNAGE: The signage atop the iconic Bombay stock exchange building toppled too. Water from Dahisar river was seen flowing through people's homes in Dahisar Gaothan and parts of Borivli east.
ELECTROCUTED: A 38-year-old man allegedly died of electrocution in an inundated area of Dahisar east) here on Wednesday, police said. Shambhu Soni was found dead on the waterlogged streets of Anand Nagar locality by some passersby in the morning hours, an official said. The deceased, who worked at a tile manufacturing unit, was on his way to work in the rains when he got electrocuted, a civic official said. While his body has been sent for a post mortem, an accidental death report has been registered by local police.
TREE COLLAPSE: A tree collapsed on police check-post at the main gate of 'Mantralaya', the administrative headquarters of the Maharashtra government in south Mumbai. Nobody was injured in the incident but two vehicles parked outside the checkpost were damaged, a police officer said and the same was the case in another incident of tree collapse outside the 'garden gate' of Mantralaya, he said.
In last 24 hours 141 trees have collapsed in Mumbai. " These trees were immediately cleared from the spot by the workers," said an official of BMC tree department.
CRANES HIT: Three cranes at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) collapsed due to strong winds and heavy downpours in the city on Wednesday. Sanjay Sethi, Chairman of JNPT confirmed the incident reported at 4 pm. No injury has been reported, and port operations continue to remain unaffected, he said.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT, TOO: Around 200 passengers who were stuck in two trains near the Masjid station on the Central line were were rescued by Central Railway RPF. "The RPF has also called the NDRF to help evacuate around 60 more passengers. These passengers were stranded for almost two hours," said a CR spokesperson. The NDRF said that two local trains were stuck between Masjid and Byculla stations on the Central line due to waterlogging on the tracks.
"Total 150 passengers from 1 local going from CST to Karjat rescued by Railway staff. About 100-120 still inside. Another local coming from Karjat to CST stuck 60 metres away from Masjid station," the statement from CR said.
WHY HEAVY RAIN, STRONG WIND: The IMD has said that the reason for heavy rainfall in Mumbai and nearby areas is the strengthening of the southwest monsoon. According to an IMD bulletin on Wednesday morning, a cyclonic circulation lies over south Gujarat and neighbourhood at middle and upper troposphere levels.
“As a consequence, southwesterly monsoon flow has strengthened over the Arabian sea with southwesterly/westerly winds speed reaching 50-60 kmph along and off Konkan Coast at surface and lower tropospheric levels,” the IMD bulletin said.
It further said that extremely heavy rain is likely to continue over Konkan and Goa (including Mumbai) till August 6. Also, parts of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and East Madhya Pradesh would experience heavy rainfall on Wednesday and Thursday.
As on Wednesday, the cumulative rainfall for Mumbai was around 357 mm, against the monthly average of 585.2 mm. With 53.2 mm rain recorded over 24 hours (8.30 am Tuesday to 8.30 am Wednesday), the Colaba weather observatory notched up a seasonal rain tally of 2,072.2 mm, surpassing its average for the season (2,066 mm).
Over the last 48 hours, Mumbai has received 353 mm rain. The city has also recorded 64% of its August average rainfall in the first five days of the month.
Since Tuesday night, the western suburbs had received 82.43 mm rain, followed by eastern suburbs-69.11 mm and the island city-45.38 mm, the BMC said.
TRAIN SERVICES: Waterlogging was reported in the low-lying areas of Chembur, Parel, Hindmata, Wadala and other areas. The railway authorities suspended suburban train operations between CSMT-Vashi stations on the Harbour line, CSMT-Kurla on the Main line and also between Churchgate and Kurla due to water-logging on tracks around Masjid Bunder, Kurla, Sion, Marine Line and other stations.
"Due to heavy rain and water-logging, the train services on the harbour line between CSMT-Vashi and on the Main line between CSMT-Kurla have been suspended," chief spokesperson of the Central Railway (CR), Shivaji Sutar, said.
The Western Railway also announced on Twitter that due to heavy rainfall, all local train services between Churchgate and Mumbai Central stations have been temporarily suspended till further orders.
Train movement on the Western Railway route in Palghar was affected due to heavy rain in the morning.
There was a "minor disruption" at Palghar from 5.40am to 7.10am due to 266mm rain in two hours and hence, some trains were regulated en route, Western Railway's chief spokesperson Sumit Thakur said.
According to railway sources, suburban services were stopped due to waterlogging on tracks at Palghar station. Thakur, however, said despite heavy rains in various suburbs, WR suburban services were running normally between Churchgate and Dahanu Road.
Both the CR and WR have been operating nearly 350 special train services each, daily, for those working in essential and emergency services.
Bus services of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), the city civic body's transport wing, were also affected due to waterlogging on some roads.
A BEST spokesperson said their services were diverted on more than 30 routes, including two locations in Thane district, till 9am.
MMR SITUATION: The weather station at Bhayandar in Thane recorded 169mm rainfall while the one at Mira Road reported 159mm. As per the IMD's website, Thane city, Dombivli and Kalyan areas, which are part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), received more than 120 mm rainfall in the same period.
Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been stationed at both Thane and Palghar, to deal with any eventualities, NDRF commandant Rajendra Patil said.
LAKE LEVELS: The seven lakes that supply water to Mumbai have recorded a marginal increase in their levels, following heavy rainfall over the past two days in the city and suburbs, but the storage was found to be much below capacity as compared to the corresponding period in the past two years, indicating that the water cut will continue to be in place.
On Wednesday morning, the water content in the lakes, located in Mumbai, and adjoining Thane and Palghar districts, was pegged at 37.36% -- up from 34.95% the previous day.
Between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, monsoon added 33,411 million litres (ML) water to the seven lakes and the total storage is now at 5,39,307 ML as compared to 1,3,01,984 and 1,2,18,692 ML in 2019 and 2018 respectively.
The following is the break-up of the rainfall received by the seven lakes in and around Mumbai over the past 24 hours (Tuesday-Wednesday: Upper Vaitarna 97 millimetres (mm); Modak Sagar (141 mm); Tansa (83 mm), Middle Vaitarna (99 mm); Bhatsa (88 mm); Vehar (105 mm); and Tulsi (154 mm).
