Mumbai rains cause traffic jam, waterlogging, tree collapses

Mumbai Rains saw traffic jams on Western Express Highway, JVLR, Eastern Express Highway and Navi Mumbai. Pic/Anand Sarpate

Mumbai city on Friday continued to witness heavy showers for the third day in a row. The Indian Meteorological Department's forecast has predicted 'spells of rain with heavy falls at isolated places' in the city and suburbs for the next 48 hours. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's disaster cell received complaints of waterlogging from low-lying areas towards the evening on Friday.

According to IMD, rainfall recorded in 24 hours from July 26, 2019; 08.30 hrs to July 27, 2019, 08.30 hrs in Colaba was 90 mm, while Santacruz recorded 219 mm of rainfall in the same period.

The good news was that the three days of consistent rain got the Tansa and Modak Sagar lakes overflowing by Friday. Four out of the seven lakes that supply water to the city received an average of about 100 mm rainfall on Friday. The water stock in Mumbai's lakes stood at 64.14 per cent (9,28,326 million litres) as of Friday.

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While Modak Sagar began overflowing around 5.20 pm on Friday evening, Tansa reached its capacity two days ago. This is the third lake to overflow this month, with Tulsi lake being the first. According to the hydraulic department, Middle Vaitarna is likely to overflow next, as its water level stood at 82.63 per cent on Thursday.

Central Railway suspended train operations beyond Kalyan to Ambernath on Friday night over waterlogging issues.

BEST, too, saw diversions on Sion Road No 24, Gandhi Market, Motilal Nagar Post Office, Veera Desai Road and SV Road near National College, Bandra. Most places in the city also experienced major traffic jams, especially the Western Express Highway and the Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR). There was waterlogging and very slow-moving traffic on SCLR near the stretch where it runs parallel to harbour line. The civic body's disaster cell received complaints of 17 tree/branch collapses and seven short circuit complaints through Friday.

Also Read: Mumbai Rains: 17 flights diverted at airport as rains lash city

In South Mumbai, part of a wall of the seven-storey Khakkar Building at CP tank road collapsed. The incident was reported at around 8.40 pm. No one was injured in the incident.

Also massive jam at the turn at Mankhurd off the Eastern Express Highway because of the spillover.

There were traffic jams across BKC, which was also submerged underwater. People had to wait in their vehicles for almost for thirty to forty minutes to cross BKC to Trade Wing building, as the road was narrowed from a three-lane to two-lane due to ongoing flyover work. SCLR too faced huge traffic jam and people had to be in their vehicles for about forty-five minutes to reach the Chheda Nagar signal.

Similar traffic issues were witnessed at Mankhurd and Mandala towards Navi Mumbai.

While traffic was smooth on the Palm Beach road, traffic was blocked on the Sion-Panvel highway after Nerul, where huge containers and heavy vehicles were slow-moving
It took over three hours to reach Kharghar.