Heavy overnight rain jolts Mumbai; Road & rail traffic hit, schools shut

Overnight heavy rain pounded large parts of Mumbai and Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) hitting suburban and long-distance trains, roads and highways while stranding lakhs of commuters trooping out to work on the first working day of the week, and all schools were shut for the morning session, officials said in Mumbai on Monday.

In just six hours, many areas in the city recorded more than a staggering 200 mm - 300 mm rainfall from 1 a.m. till 7 a.m., according to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the downpour continued with a forecast of heavy rain for the next two days.

As Mumbai slept, the skies opened up for the first major downpour of the current monsoon, and most citizens woke up to waterlogged roads, railway tracks, flooded low-lying areas, water in homes, shops or offices, blocked subways and many places rendered inaccessible to commute.

The earliest of the commuters before dawn encountered either delays or cancellations of suburban local trains -- the city's lifeline which transports over 8.50 million people daily -- with huge crowds waiting at almost all the railway stations dotting the Central Railway and Western Railway networks sprawling Mumbai plus Thane, Palghar and Raigad (MMR).

Besides, important trains that ferry thousands of commuters on the Mumbai-Gujarat, Mumbai-Pune, Mumbai-Kolhapur sectors, were also hit by cancellations or massive delays or getting stranded at stations en route. In Mumbai, several subways, including Santacruz, Andheri, Jogeshwari, Malad, Kandival and Dahisar were flooded with 3-5 feet of water, and east-west traffic was halted.

Railway tracks were flooded near Kalyan, Dombivali, Ulhasnagar, Thane, Bhandup, Kurla, Sion and Wadala hitting suburban trains. Several housing complexes were waterlogged in Dahisar, Borivali, Kandivali, Malad, Jogeshwari, Andheri, Santacruz, Sion, Wadala, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Bhandup, and other places.

Scores of big and small vehicles were either stuck or submerged partly-fully in different areas of the city, tree falls and other minor incidents, though there are no reports of any casualties so far. 

(With inputs from IANS)