A day after the Island city of Mumbai registered a record rainfall in 46 years, the country’s commercial capital and neighbouring area reeled under the intense wet spell for the third consecutive day on Thursday, resulting in dislocation in bus and suburban train services and inundation of the low-lying areas.
A landslide along upmarket Peddar Road, 15 wall collapses, 360-odd tree falls and 47 incidents of electric short-circuits were the highlights of Thursday’s monsoon report card for the metropolis put out by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
In one of the major monsoon-related incident that disrupted the traffic towards south Mumbai, a portion of the land slid along with trees planted near the wall protecting the hillock along the Peddar Road. The landslide took place in the early hours of Thursday, at the edge of the Malabar Hill located just off the Kemp’s Corner flyover.
The suburban train service services on the Main and Harbour lines of the Central and Central Railway were affected by the continued rains and consequent inundation of tracks at several places. This was the second landslide within Mumbai in three days — the other being the one reported earlier at Kandivli in north Mumbai along the Western Express Highway.
For most part of the day, team of civic workers were involved in clearing the piled up loose soil from the landslide and branches of the trees. As a consequence, the main arterial road remained out of bounds for the traffic movement for several hours.
Talking to mediapersons after visiting the spot, Maharashtra’s former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said: “I visited the Peddar Road in south Mumbai where the entire road got blocked due to landslide. Not only traffic got affected but water supply too”.
Meanwhile, the Island city of Mumbai recorded 331.8 mm of rains during 24 hours between 8.30 am on August 5 and 8.30 am August 6, which incidentally was the highest rainfall in 46 years. The city suburbs recorded a rain of 162.3mm during the same period.
Of the 15 wall collapses reported on Thursday, six were reported from the Island city, six incidents took place in the eastern suburbs, while the remaining three incidents were reported from western suburbs of the city.
Similarly, there were 361 tree falls — 274 in the city, 40 eastern suburbs and 47 in the western suburbs — were reported from across the metropolis, while 57 incidents of electric short circuits were reported from the different parts of the metropolis. Following the call by the weather bureau, the fishermen from the Coastal Konkan region chose not to venture into the sea.
Meanwhile, 16 fishermen who were stranded off Arnala off Thane district were rescued by Indian Coast Guard.
A crane in the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust collapsed but no damage to any vessel was reported, while winds caused extensive damage to the DY Patil Stadium in Nerul in Navi Mumbai.
In a related development, Kolhapur district in Western Maharashtra has been put on high alert with the Panchganga river flowing over the flood line in some places. The Panchganga river is flowing at 41.2 feet level whereas the alert level is 39 feet and danger mark is 43 feet
The movement on nine State highways and two dozen roads in the Kolhapur district were affected because of rainfall since the last three days.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray reviewed the situation in Kolhapur, along with the neighbouring district of Sangli which had in July-August witnessed deluge and floods. Uddhav advised Konkan and Pune divisional commissioners to focus on overflowing of rivers in Kolhapur, Raigad, Ratnagiri and shift local residents to safer places in view of flooding of rivers.