Heavy rains lash Mumbai; traffic disrupted, landslide kills boy

Heavy rains hit Mumbai on Thursday morning disrupting vehicular traffic and trains services. Waterlogging was also reported in some parts of the city.

Children wade through water as heavy rains lash Mumbai. Pic: Sameer Markande

A five-year old boy was killed and at least five others in a landslide in Chembur, which was a result of heavy downpour, officials said. Mumbai local trains in Western and Harbour lines were running late by 10-15 minutes and road traffic jams were reported at some parts of Western Suburbs

Traffic jam at WEH from Kandivli to Goregaon. Pic: Shashank Rao

Metro services hit
Heavy rainfall also disrupted the Mumbai Metro train services. Trains on the11.04 km VAG corridor were running 10-15 mins late on Thursday morning.

The trains were seen stopping at each station for unusually longer duration, according to commuters. MMOPL officials clarified that due to continuous heavy downpour, as a precautionary measure trains were running slowly and stopping for longer durations at stations.

Waterlogging was also reported below most Metro stations, which inconvenienced commuters

School kids inconvenienced
Many schools witnessed a fall in attendance after heavy rains hit Mumbai early on Thursday morning.

The education department has not released any official notice for schools to declare a holiday today because of the downpour. However, many schools in the city have been allowing students to go back home, provided their parents come to pick them up.

"If the students are inside the school premises, we usually don't let them go midway even if it's raining or else they will be stranded in the road. But in some cases we have allowed the students to leave after their parents requested us to send their kids home," said Fr George Athaide, principal of St Michael's High School in Mahim.

Some schools in the city have already declared a holiday for the afternoon batch.