Heavy rain that lashed the Island city and suburbs since Friday night affected the normal life in the metropolis on Saturday, inundating low-lying areas and railway tracks at several places and disrupting road, railway and air traffic.
Owing to heavy rain all through Friday night, water-logging was reported from various parts of the city in the morning. With railway tracks under thick sheets of water at some places, trains on the suburban networks of the Western and Central Railways ran 15 to 20 minutes behind the schedule. Traffic snarls were reported from several parts of the city on Friday night.
Eleven flights were cancelled on Saturday mornign at the Mumbai airport due to poor visibility. “Though delayed there were continuous operations at the airport. Few flights were diverted,” a Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) official said.
Waterlogging was also reported outside the domestic airport departure gate leading to hardships to passengers who had managed to reach the airport after having been stuck in traffic jams on the Western Express highway. "With non-stop rain, we did observe water-logging at the landside area. The situation was immediately addressed by MIAL’s on-duty staff. Within a few minutes, the issue was addressed and subsequently, the water level was brought down with de-watering pumps," the MIAL official said.
Alluding to a complaint from the passengers about water dripping from the ceiling, the MIAL official said it was basically due to dislocation of rainwater pipeline joint due to heavy in flow of rain water in one of the pipe causing leakage. "It was addressed within no time and the required actions were taken to clear the water without disturbing the passengers," the official added.
Meanwhile, the Kalyan-Ulhasnagar-Badlapur belt of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region received heavy rainfall - between 280 to 330 mm rainfall on Friday and Saturday.
Following a landslide near Khed, the busy Mumbai-Goa Highway was blocked on Saturday afternoon.
Heavy rainfall was reported from Thane and Ratnagiri with towns of Ulhasnagar, Murbad, Badlapur, Tiwala, Vangani, Khed, Mangaon, Mandangad, Chiplun and surroundings practically submerged.
Meanwhile, Indian Meteorological Department has forecast intermittent rains/showers with heavy to very heavy falls at a few places in the Island city and suburbs for the next 24 hours.
In a related development, the Central Railway cancelled four long-distance trains and diverted five other trains. The cancelled trains were: CSMT Mumbai — Bidar Express, Bidar — CSMT Mumbai Express and CSMT Mumbai — Pandharpur fast passenger.