Heavy rain lashes Mumbai, disrupts local train services

The incessant rains also  lead to a wall collapse at Govandi on Monday evening, which claimed two lives. A woman, injured in the incident, was admitted to a hospital, an official from Disaster Management cell said.

Low-lying areas such as Kurla, Chembur, Tilak Nagar, Andheri, Parel and Lower Parel as well as parts of the neighbouring Thane, Navi Mumbai and Raigad were submerged. In Palghar district, schools were closed for the day, officials said.

The Western Railway’s suburban services were affected between Andheri and Churchgate stations for some time due to a point failure that forced closure of two tracks while train movement on the Central line was suspended for sometime as tracks on some stretches were submerged due to the heavy downpour. “Soon after point failure was reported, our staff swung into action and it was corrected and services were restored immediately,” Western Railway’s chief PRO Sharat Chandrayan said.

A few services were cancelled as soil under the tracks washed away between Palghar and Boisar stretch that led to the closing down of one of the tracks. Around 10.15am, suburban trains services between Kurla and CST were suspended for 10 minutes as tracks between Sion and Kurla were inundated, stated the Central Railway’s (CR) release.

CR’s chief PRO Narendra Patil said: “There were a few cancellations in the morning as few stretches got submerged, but services were restored by the afternoon. However, trains were running late by 15 to 20 minutes.” 

During the last 24 hours, Colaba in South Mumbai received 15.8mm rainfall, while Santacruz weather station recorded 61mm downpour. “We are having good clouding at the offshores and expect good rainfall in the next 48 hours,” IMD Mumbai centre’s director VK Rajiv said.

Due to heavy rains and breaches between Palghar and Boisar, five express trains of Western Railway scheduled to leave Mumbai on Tuesday morning were cancelled. Ahmedabad Express, Bandra-Surat Inter-city Express, Mumbai Central-Ahmedabad Shatabdi Express, Mumbai Central-Porbundar Express and Bandra Terminus-Vapi passenger train were cancelled.

In Thane city, a portion of a wall of garden crashed on a vehicle, regional disaster management control room chief Santosh Kadam said, adding that there were no reports of any injuries.

The soil support for tracks on down line (towards Gujarat) was washed away due to heavy rains at Palghar in the last 12 hours, thus severely affecting movement of trains towards Gujarat since the early hours.

Heavy rains continued to lash in Madhya Pradesh. On Monday, 6,000 people were evacuated in the state.