On the first day of the monsoon on Saturday, the BMC's claim of having kept the metropolis "rain ready" was completely exposed as hollow. Despite the rains not being heavy, several areas experienced major flooding, severely disrupting vehicular traffic. Ravi Raja, the former leader of the opposition in the BMC, stated, "The civic administration has utterly failed the citizens of Mumbai. With the rains arriving late, the officials had more time to clean the gutters and nullahs, but they did nothing."
Since March 2022, when the tenure of the corporators came to a close, there have been no elected representatives to supervise the work of the officials, who now have a free run of the civic body.
Gandhi Market and King's Circle railway station flooded within minutes
Gandhi Market and King's Circle railway station flooded within minutes of the rains, the usual flooding spot. The BMC had installed dewatering pumps at the spot, but that did not help in any way. The traffic jam extended up to Sion Circle on the northbound lane of the road, and the southbound lane was also severely affected, reaching up to Dadar TT circle. Northbound traffic was diverted through Bhaudaji Road, but it was of no avail as the vehicles could only move at a snail's pace. Considering the flooding, the traffic constables had precious little they could do to ease the situation. Even roads in SoBo, such as Peddar Road and Napeansea Road, which are usually not significantly affected during the monsoon, were flooded on Saturday, with water entering some cars. As a result, there was a massive traffic jam at Breach Candy and other nearby areas.
The second-worst spot in the city during the monsoons is the infamous Andheri subway. An hour after the rains started, water began accumulating in the subway, forcing traffic officials to close it. "Due to heavy waterlogging at Andheri subway, it has been closed for traffic," said Mumbai Traffic Police via Twitter.
Traffic going through the subway was diverted towards Andheri station road, Western Express Highway (WEH), and SV Road. Unfortunately, due to the diversion and closure of Andheri subway, heavy traffic started accumulating at SV Road near Goregaon and other suburbs. "The situation on the highway was hellish," complained motorist Vibhav Prabhakar.
Water logging at Saki Naka
A little away from the subway, yet another traffic congestion occurred due to water logging - at Saki Naka signal. The already narrow road saw traffic bottleneck all the way towards Asalpha and Jarimari. The waiting time in traffic at 7 in the evening on Saturday was around 45 minutes.
In the western suburbs, outside the the Valnai - Meeth Chowk, near the signal in Malad heavy traffic congestion due to water logging was reported.
At the south region of the city, vehicular movement slowed due to water logging at Bhulabhai Desai Road, Mahalaxmi. Similarly, at Gafar Khan Road near Worli Sea Link gate, traffic was affected due to water logging.
Motorists at Amar Mahal Junction are encountering traffic, leading to slower progress in the area.
On the Western Express Highway near Andheri East, there is heavy traffic heading southbound, causing significant delays for commuters.
An alarming situation has been reported on LBS Road near Godrej Signal; located on Kurla-CST Road, where motorists have been stuck for over an hour. This has resulted in a significant backlog of vehicles, affecting the flow of traffic towards Powai.
According to MET department, 1.4 mm rain fall at Colaba area till 5.30 pm and 27.8 mm rain in Santacruz division.
As informed by IMD, forecast for Mumbai was upgraded to Orange alert for the next 24 hrs.
According to information of Colaba MET department, weather would be cloudy on Sunday and heavy rainfall is expected in the next 24 hours.
Apart from this, BMC'S own automatic rain fall measurement centres recorded 65.60 mm rain fall in City area, 69.86 mm rainfall in eastern suburbs and 73.57 mm rainfall in Western Suburbs till 8 pm on Saturday.
Tree branches falling incidents at 11 places
Tree branches falling incidents were noticed at 11 places in Mumbai. Fortunately, no one got injured in the incidents. According to BMC, 04 tree branches falling incidents happened in City, 5 in western suburbs and 2 in eastern suburbs.
From 5 pm on Saturday evening, heavy rainfall occurred in the city and rain water slowly receded at Dadar TT circle, road no.24 in Sion, Tilak Nagar, Andheri Subway and Milan Subway.
There were 7 short circuits incidents were noticed in Mumbai. No one one injured in the incidents. Necessary department were alerted and help has been sent to these areas by BMC.
House collapse incident was reported in Western suburbs due to heavy rainfall on Saturday.
2 drown in Nullah
As per the information received from Mumbai Firebrigade, two people drowned in a 90 feet drain at road no. 10 in Shivaji Nagar, Govandi near Bus depot. Both the persons were taken out with the help of Shivaji Nagar police but unfortunately, they were declared dead by the medical officers.
