Rain spells trouble, joy to some

Mumbai: The rain gods finally deigned to smile on Mumbaikars, who woke up to a wet Sunday morning as the city witnessed its first major downpour of the season. While road and railway traffic was hit due to water logging, normal life was not greatly affected since it was a holiday. However, one person died at Juhu Koliwada due to drowning, while another went missing.

The downpour started on Saturday night and continued on Sunday morning as well. Colaba and Santacruz recorded 63.2 mm and 88.6 mm of rainfall respectively between 8 am to 2.30 pm. Rains lashed both the eastern and western suburbs. In the 10-hour period from 1 am to 11 am on Sunday, the S ward comprising Bhandup, Mulund and Powai recorded 154.93 mm of rainfall, while western suburbs like Borivali, Dindoshi, Goregaon and Marol received 97.38 mm.

People push a car in Thane (Photo: Deepak Kurkunde)

Sunday also saw the highest tide of the monsoon with sea waves reaching a height of 4.97 metres at 1.07 pm. Despite repeated instructions, asking people to keep away from the sea, two persons drowned at Juhu-Koliwada beach at around 3.30 pm. While the body of one, Abhishek Madav (22), was found and taken to hospital where he was declared dead, the other, Ankoor Vijay Betkar (17) is still missing. Rescue and search operations are in progress, said fire officials. “The BMC has taken various preventive measures and 50 lifeguards have been placed at various beaches in the city” said Sudhir Naik, deputy municipal commissioner, BMC. The Haji Ali mosque has issued advisory to Eid celebrants to avoid coming out during high tide hours.

Meanwhile water logging was reported in parts of Parel, Kings Circle, Sion, Wadala, Ghatkopar, Kurla, Vile Parle, Jogeshwari, Malad, Malvani, Kandivali, Borivali, Magathane and Dahisar. Continous showers led to water logging on the tracks. As a result trains on Harbour line's CST-Panvel section as well as trans-Harbour saw delays up to 20 minutes. The delay was first seen on the Trans-Harbour as the signalling points at Thane failed causing trains between Thane and Panvel to stop from 9 am to 10 am. On the Panvel-CST-Andheri, section, CR asked the motormen to run the trains at a speed restriction of 30 kph that caused delay on this line too. A railway official said, "In case of rains its standard operating procedure that we give the 30 kph restrictions as you cannot take risks in case of waterlogging."

Stranded commuters walk on tracks (Photo: Deepak Kurkunde)

Rains had a minor effect on flight operations with delays of around 15 to 20 minutes reported. However, a Jet Airways flight from Dubai, which was suppose to land at 4am was diverted to Ahmedabad due to bad weather because of the rains.

With Sunday being a weekly off, most people preferred to stay in. However, the promenades at Marine Drive and Worli saw many people coming out to enjoy the rains and waves. According to civic officials, there were 48 complaints of tree falls in the city.