Mithi river flooding added to woes of Mumbaikars

Nine hours of extremely heavy rainfall flooded the Mithi river, disrupting the road and suburban rail services in Mumbai on Wednesday.

The situation worsened in the afternoon as water from the flooded Mithi river was pushed back by the high tide and it submerged rail tracks at Matunga, Kings Circle, Kurla and Wadala, virtually bringing the train and road traffic to a standstill.

As per an India Meteorological Department (IMD) report, the Kurla fire station recorded 141.97 mm rainfall in 12 hours on Wednesday, while the Santacruz observatory recorded 214.4 mm rainfall during the same period.

The Mithi river flows through these areas and heavy downpour caused flooding in it.

The direct impact was cancellation of hundreds of local train services on Western, Central and Harbour Lines, which on an average transport around seven millions passengers everyday.

Over 60 long-distance trains running on Central and Western lines were also cancelled while a similar number of trains were short terminated at stations such as Dadar, Kalyan and Panvel, said Railway officials.

Some 4,500 people were rescued by the staff of Central Railway and RPF when their trains were stranded due to water- logging on tracks, said an official.

Newly-appointed Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, who arrived at the Mumbai airport on Wednesday, was also affected by the showers.

His convoy was made to wait on a road near the airport as a portion of it was under water, said an official from the state protocol department.

Train services partially resumed on the Western Railway after 5 pm as water from Matunga Road station receded.

The IMD has predicted "heavy rainfall" for Thursday as against Wednesday's forecast of "extremely heavy" rainfall.

As many as 77 civic buses reported breakdowns of which 40 were affected due to rains, said a spokesperson of the transport undertaking BEST.

"Out of the 77 buses, BEST could repair 16 till the evening and operate them. To compensate the loss, administration asked the other running buses to make extra ferries to transport people, he said.