Mumbai and its neighbouring areas received moderate to heavy rains in the last 24 hours, the IMD said on Tuesday and predicted intermittent intense showers over the next day. But, despite heavy rains special suburban and mail/express trains have been running without disruptions.
According to a report by Mid-Day, 700 local train trips have been done since July 1 on the Central and Western Railway. The Central Railway has identified 17 vulnerable locations of water-logging and provided more than 140 pumps. While, the Western Railway has identified 15 sections in low-lying areas and overhead wires have been lifted from 100 mm to 250 mm.
As many as 150 new local train services were added on the Central Railway (CR) routes and 148 on the Western Railway (WR) on July 1, which took the overall number of services on Mumbai's suburban network to 700. The commuters claimed that most of these trains were packed to their capacity during the peak hours even as the railway authorities had assured that only 700 passengers would be allowed to travel on each local. The commuters complained that the number of trains and their frequency was inadequate and said that there was a need to operate more services.
Meanwhile, the Santacruz weather station, representative of Mumbais suburbs, reported 30.2 mm rainfall, while the Colaba bureau, representative of the island city, recorded 13.4 mm rainfall in the 24 hours ending at 8.30 am on Tuesday. Mumbai and around received moderate to heavy rains in last 24 hrs at 8.30 am of 7 July. Next 24 hours intermittent intense showers likely, IMD Mumbais Deputy Director General K S Hosalikar tweeted.
