Mumbai Rains: Flooded Vasai roads block deceased's final journey

Relatives decided to carry the deceased on a handcart since no ambulance was willing to ply through the water-logged roads. Pic/Hanif Patel

While many were left stranded on roads, in offices and at train stations in the heavy rain that lashed the city on Tuesday morning, water-logging on the roads in Vasai led to a funeral being obstructed. Relatives of the deceased, Nirmel Bahl, were forced to pull the deceased on a handcart in knee-deep water for around a kilometre.

Sanjay Bahl, residing in Sattyam Shivam Sundaram society in Vasai West was heading to the nearby crematorium for his mother's funeral but the heavy rain made the family's journey tougher. Bahl, 54, resides with his father, wife and two daughters.

The family tried to contact six to seven ambulance services but no one agreed to visit due to the water-logged roads. One ambulance driver finally agreed on the condition that the family would get the deceased up to Akshay Hotel, situated one kilometre away from the Bahl's residence.

"We then arranged a handcart, placed the dead body on it, performed all the rituals on the handcart and then began the funeral procession through the water up to the ambulance," said Bahl's neighbour Dinesh Kundar.

Kundar added that no doctor was ready to visit the Bahl home to check their mother and sign the death certificate owing to the waterlogging. "We had to visit a hospital where Mrs Bahl used to be treated and requested the doctor to accompany us home. We also called many local politicians, VVMC officials for help but nobody came over," he said.

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