The far western suburbs were the worst hit owing to very heavy rainfall in Dahisar (185mm during 8am-6pm), Borivli (144mm) and Kandivli (133mm). A stretch of Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway was marooned and several areas in Mira-Bhayander and Vasai-Virar were flooded.
In the island city, Marine Lines residents woke up to waterlogged roads, with IMD’s Colaba observatory recording 223mm rain in the 24 hours ending 8.30am Thursday-third-highest rainfall for a July day in a decade. WR’s Churchgate-Marine Lines section saw slight waterlogging up to rail level. Santacruz recorded 145mm in the same 24 hours.
The downpour, however, did not lead to a big jump in the stock in the lakes that supply water to the city-it inched up to 62% from 59% on Wednesday.
So far, the Santacruz observatory has recorded 2,219mm -nearly 96% of the season’s average of 2,319mm.
A yellow alert is in place on Friday for Mumbai and Palghar, and an orange alert for Raigad and Thane. Schools and colleges in Thane and Palghar will remain shut on Friday.
Mum-Ahd highway submerged beyond Dahisar, snarls in MMR
IMD’s Colaba observatory recorded 89mm rainfall and Santacruz 90.8mm in the 12 hours from 8.30am on Thursday.
Mumbai-Ahmedabad National Highway was marooned under water beyond Dahisar as was the area near Anand Nagar Metro station in Dahisar (West). Several areas in Mira-Bhayander and Vasai-Virar were flooded as rain lashed MMR throughout the day.
Marine Lines residents on parts of E, F, and G roads woke up to waterlogged stretches on Thursday morning.
Amid heavy rain, the retaining wall of a Mhada recreation ground at Dindoshi, Goregaon, crashed at 5.43pm. No person was injured.
Weather enthusiast Athreya Shetty said the offshore trough running from the north Konkan coast to north Kerala coast has been very active.
“Intense cloud bands towards south Konkan saw the Colaba observatory record over 200mm of rain. This system gradually moved towards the north, due to which suburbs started getting heavy rain post Thursday afternoon. Such weather conditions are expected to continue on Friday as well,” said Shetty, adding the low pressure over Telangana showed a pull effect towards the northern suburbs on Thursday. Abhijit Modak, an independent forecaster who runs the Konkan Weather blog, said the westerly winds got stronger owing to a low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal.
In the suburbs, Andheri Veera Desai Road, parts of Dahisar and Mira Road, Mulund LBS Road and Kurla reported waterlogging.
There were traffic snarls in the city and MMR, including Thane. Thane traffic department warned city motorists of a possible jam on the Mumbai-Nashik Highway in the afternoon as several heavy vehicles from the clogged Ahmedabad highway were diverted here via the Chinchoti-Bhiwandi connector route. “It was taking nearly three hours to cross the stretch from Bhiwandi to Thane which usually doesn’t even take more than 30 minutes. The administration must do something about this perennial problem hounding the area,” said a local resident.
Kalyan-Dombivli, Ambernath, Ulhasnagar and Bhiwandi’s low-lying area were flooded too. In Kalyan’s main Shivaji Chowk, market area, Ahilyabai chowk, Jadhav Marg besides Milap Nagar in Dombivli and Dombivli station premises flooded. Due to waterlogging in the Kalubai chawl area of Bhiwandi, some family members were shifted to a safer place by the local Bhiwandi-Nizampura Municipal Corporation.
Meanwhile, in a rain-related incident, one woman, Sweta Gambhire (35), was injured after a part of a ceiling collapsed on her at 4.40pm at Tambe Nagar in Mulund (West). She was stable and was discharged from civic-run MT Agarwal hospital where she was taken.
Power cuts were witnessed in parts of far-flung western suburbs, with substations being shut down as a preventive measure. When contacted, an Adani Electricity spokesperson said, “Mumbai’s northern suburbs have received over 100mm of rainfall in the last three hours coinciding with high tide, leading to severe waterlogging in parts of Mira-Bhayander and Borivali. Waterlogging has submerged electrical installations beyond safe operating levels, necessitating remote shutdown of over 90 substations in these areas.” The official said at 9.40pm as water receded in some parts, substations were being restored in quickest possible time.
The C-band doppler radar at Veravali, which has a surveillance of up to 250-350km, was not functional for a few hours. On June 28, too, it faced a software issue.
(Inputs by Manoj Badgeri, Pradeep Gupta, Sandhya Nair & Somit Sen)
