5 Killed, Traffic Disrupted as Rains Clobber Mumbai Again; 8 Cars Buried in Antop Hill Wall Collapse

Mumbai: At least five people were killed on Monday after heavy rains lashed the metropolis and Thane district following Southwest Monsoon's increased momentum in Mumbai.

Heavy rains continued throughout the night and Monday morning, causing water-logging at several places and slowing the movement of suburban trains, thus causing inconvenience to office-goers

Two persons were killed on Sunday evening when a tree fell on them near Metro Cinema in south Mumbai, said an official from the disaster management unit of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

A 13-year-old boy was killed and his parents were injured when an adjacent wall collapsed on their house at Wadol village in Ambernath taluka of Thane around 2:15 am on Monday, the district civic body's regional disaster management cell chief Santosh Kadam said.

In another incident, a 65-feet compound wall of a housing complex in Thane city collapsed this morning, crushing two cars and another vehicle, he said. The district received 229.81 mm rain in the last 24 hours, Kadam added.

In Mumbai, a huge part of a compound caved-in at Antop Hill area in Wadala. Around 15 cars were damaged with some vehicles getting buried under the debris, an official of the BMC's disaster management cell said.

Photo Credit: Abhijeet/News18

Photo Credit: Abhijeet/News18

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No casualty was reported in the incident, he said. "The fire brigade and Mumbai police officials have reached the spot and are assessing the situation," he added.

Mumbai received 231.4 mm rain in the last 24 hours, an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) here said. "The Santacruz weather station recorded 231.4 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours. So much rainfall is categorised as extremely heavy showers," IMD Mumbai Director Ajay Kumar told PTI.

"This is the first extremely heavy rainfall recorded in Mumbai in the current season," he said. The rain intensity has gone up and is expected to continue further, he said.

Mumbai's lifeline, the suburban locals on Western Railway (WR) and Central Railway (CR) were running between 15-30 minutes late on account of waterlogging on the railway tracks and periphery of several stations like Sion, Chinchpokli and Matunga, inconveniencing office-goers due to overnight rains that lashed the city.

On the WR, the downpour had dislocated train movement due to heavy rains in south Gujarat and north-west Maharashtra, but services were restored (after nearly 90 minutes) with severe speed restrictions by 9:10 am on Monday.

WR General Manager AK Gupta left for the affected track sites between Bhilad-Sanjan (south Gujarat), even as several mail and express trains bound for Mumbai and from Mumbai to various destinations like Gujarat and Delhi, were delayed at various points en route.

Owing to the heavy showers, several parts of the city, like Dharavi, Sion, Matunga, Hindmata, Malad, Kurla, Andheri subway, Bhandup, Worli and Lower Parel, were flooded with water up to two to three feet, and vehicles got stuck in some places.

"Traffic has been diverted from Sion, King's circle, National College in Bandra, Siddharth Hospital in Goregaon, Chembur Phatak, Pratiksha Nagar in Sion, Milan Subway in Santacruz and Powai area of the city," a statement issued by civic body said.

The Western Railway in a tweet said, "WR Suburban trains are running with no disruption. There is slight delay due to low visibility in some areas due to rains." Certain diversions were made due to water-logging on few routes of bus services of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), an official said.

The Mumbai morning peak road traffic was badly hit as waterlogging was reported in some parts of the Eastern and Western Express Highways (EEH-WEH), main and arterial roads and many low-lying areas of the city and suburbs and traffic to and from adjoining Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts.

The IMD has predicted heavy-to-very heavy rain in the city in the next 24 to 48 hours. "These heavy showers are due to a cyclonic circulation over north Konkan and adjoining south Gujarat and another circulation in the Bay of Bengal. We expect the rain activity to increase in the coming week, with scattered heavy to very heavy rain on June 27 and 28 in parts of north Konkan, including Mumbai," an IMD official said.

According to IMD, till 8:30 am in the past 24 hours, Mumbai suburbs received a 231.5 mm and the city got 100 mm rains.

(With inputs from PTI)