Yesterday was a day like any other for a Mumbaikar. Rains, traffic, reaching destinations more than an hour late than estimated. This is regular for those who have experienced rains in the maximum city. However, things seem to have worsened withing a span of few hours.
Rains have been lashing at the city for more than 24 hours now and according to analysts, the situation could get as bad as it did on July 26 2005. Life came to a standstill at the finance capital of the country for more than a week owing to the rains back then. People were stuck at their work place for days together, many lost their lives owing to drowning or being stuck in an immobile vehicle and an due to health various illnesses in the following days.
Mumbai, as of late last night, received 150-180 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours. Seventeen inbound flights were diverted from the Mumbai airport on Friday as the city witnessed heavy downpour, airport authorities said here.
Flights faced delays of on average more than one hour in airport operations.
Intense spells of rain are likely to continue in the districts of Thane, Raigad and Mumbai, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had said earlier in the day. An 'orange alert' has been issued by authorities.
The "orange alert" signifies that authorities should get ready for necessary action.
The Modak Sagar lake, one of the seven reservoirs supplying water to Mumbai, started overflowing on Friday afternoon following heavy rains over the past few days, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.
The city has been receiving heavy showers on Saturday morning too. And owing to all the rains and water logging , heavy traffic has been reported in western suburbs, in areas like Juhu-Tara road, Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road, several stretches of SV Road and parts of Western Express Highway and parts of Bandra.
Last night, traffic had to be diverted from Motilal Nagar Post Office (Goregaon), Veera Desai Road (Andheri), S.V. Road, National College (Bandra), Milan, Khar and Andheri subways, as these areas lay submerged.
There have been five reports of trees or branches falling and one partial wall collapse. Suburban train services in the city too, have been running late by an average of ten minutes.
With inputs from PTI