After a long hiatus, heavy rains returned to lash Mumbai and suburbs on Wednesday, inundating low-lying areas, stopping local trains on tracks between Kurla and Thane stations and stranding passengers even as traffic crawled on roads.

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The IMD upgraded its orange alert for Mumbai city and its neighbouring districts to a red alert, valid till 8.30 am on Thursday.

Officials said two flights were diverted and seven flights had to make a go-around at Mumbai airport due to inclement weather.

Several suburbs of Mumbai have been receiving significant rain from Wednesday afternoon, with Mulund and its surroundings experiencing the heaviest rainfall, inundating low-lying areas.

Heavy showers have been lashing the island city from the evening, slowing down road traffic due to water-logging and poor visibility. Local train services were also delayed due to rains, said officials.

In its latest warning, issued at 5.30 pm, IMD predicted “extremely heavy rainfall and thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds at isolated places” in Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Ratnagiri districts.

The Met department has issued a red alert for Palghar and an orange one for Thane, Raigad, Mumbai and Pune for September 26. An orange alert has been issued for Nashik and Dhule districts in north Maharashtra.

Significant water-logging was reported from Kurla, Chembur, Mulund, Vikhroli, Breach Candy and some other areas in Mumbai, where people can be seen wading their way through waist-level water.

NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule showed a submerged road in Breach Candy area of south Mumbai through a Facebook live session. She offered a lift to a person stranded outside a building.

Water-logging on tracks affected the services of local trains and express trains at some places between Kurla and Thane, leaving commuters stranded at different stations.

"Kurla railway track was inundated due to heavy rains, forcing local trains to stop on tracks between Thane and Mumbai. Thousands of passengers are stranded in these trains," a railway commuter said.

Mumbai's eastern suburbs received the highest rainfall of less than 30 mm before 6 pm on Wednesday, a Mumbai civic body official said.

As IMD issued a red alert for Mumbai, city civic commissioner Bhushan Gagrani asked all assistant commissioners to ensure that respective executive engineers stay put in ward control rooms.

He also directed chief engineers of the Stormwater Drains (SWD) department to ensure SWD staff is on the field and de-watering pumps are operational.

Deputy chief engineers have been asked to be available in their respective zones at night, Gagrani added.

All Deputy Municipal Commissioners have also been directed to monitor the situation in their respective zones.

IMD scientist Sushma Nair said a trough runs from north Konkan to south Bangladesh across a cyclonic circulation over south Chhattisgarh and its neighbourhood extending to the middle tropospheric level tilting southwards with height.

"This will lead to fairly widespread to widespread light/moderate rainfall is very likely over Konkan and Goa during the week," she said.

Isolated heavy rainfall is very likely over Konkan and Goa and central Maharashtra during September 25-27.