Mumbai rains: Bambai ki baarish arrives with a sinking feeling

Vehicles negotiate a water-logged stretch outside Goregaon East Station on Saturday evening. Pic/Anurag Ahire

The arrival of monsoon in Mumbai brought both comfort and chaos with several parts of the city witnessing flooding on Saturday. Two people were also reported to have drowned in a nullah at Shivaji Nagar, Govandi. According to the BMC's automatic weather system, Mumbai received an average of 65 mm rainfall between 8 am and 8 pm. While the Western suburbs received 74 mm rainfall, the Eastern suburbs saw 70 mm rainfall during the same period. At 143 mm, Dahisar received the highest rainfall.

Saturday's rains also washed away all the tall claims of the civic body about nullah-cleaning work and installation of dewatering pumps. The BMC had in March stated that it was spending R257 crore to clean the city's major and minor nullahs, including the Mithi river. In order to prevent water-logging in the low-lying areas, it had also installed 477 dewatering pumps. But, following a heavy spell of rain on Saturday, several pockets in the city witnessed flooding, including Gandhi Market, Dadar TT, Sion, LBS Road, BKC connector road, Kala Chowki, Saki Naka, and a road adjacent to Shivaji Park.

The flood-prone Dahisar, Malad and Andheri subways were once again flooded. Photos and videos on Twitter showed stranded vehicles in waist-deep water at Andheri subway, with garbage floating around. Meanwhile, a case of drowning was reported in a nullah in Govandi. As per information received by the Mumbai Fire Brigade, two people drowned while cleaning an underground drainage at 90 Feet Road around 4.20 pm. The fire brigade initiated a search operation and retrieved both the bodies. The victims, Ramkrishna and Sudhir Das, were declared brought dead at Rajawadi Hospital.

The suburban trains were running smoothly at the time of going to press. Commuters complained that some railway stations were unprepared with missing roofs at stations like CSMT, Ghatkopar and Mira Road, where repair work is on. The Central Railway has kept boats ready for monsoon emergencies at the city's five stations (CSMT, Matunga, Kurla, Thane, and Badlapur). A number of BEST buses were diverted. The BMC also received 11 complaints of tree fall. The IMD has issued an orange alert for Mumbai on Sunday.

With inputs by Rajendra B Aklekar