Heavy rains in Mumbai after week-long lull; waterlogging at few places

Rains lashed Mumbai and its suburbs on Friday morning after almost a week of subdued rainfall activity, which led to waterlogging at some places and resulted in slowing down of traffic, officials said.

Railway authorities claimed that suburban trains were running as per their normal schedule, but commuters complained that there was a delay of around 15 minutes.

Moderate to heavy rains started lashing the metropolis from early morning, making a strong comeback almost after a week. The intensity of rainfall was more in the city as compared to its suburbs, the officials said.

Some parts of the city witnessed waterlogging, as a result of which the movement of vehicles on roads slowed down. The Andheri subway had to be closed for traffic around 8.45 am due to accumulation of rainwater around it.

“Due to water logging, Andheri Subway is closed, while traffic is diverted to Vile Parle bridge & Captain Gore Marg S.V road,” Mumbai Traffic Police said on Twitter.

The island city, its eastern and western suburbs received 53.54 mm, 25.06 mm and 26.23 mm rainfall, respectively, in the last 24 hours ending 8 am, a civic official said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted light to moderate rainfall in the city and suburbs in the next 24 hours, he said.

A spokesperson of the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport, also known as BEST, said the transport body diverted its buses on around half a dozen routes due to a tree fall incident near Sadhana Vidyalaya at Sion.

Since last weekend, the intensity of rainfall had gone down in Mumbai. A mix of sunny and cloudy days were observed over the past few days in the city, which witnessed spells of light to heavy rainfall during this period.