Mumbai’s first monsoon rain causes waterlogging, jams, disrupts trains

The south-west monsoon arrived in Mumbai and its neighbouring areas on Wednesday, the IMD announced as heavy rains lashed the country’s financial capital and suburbs since early morning.

Local train services from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji MaharajTerminus (CSMT) to neighbouring Thane and Vashi in Navi Mumbai were suspended due to water-logging on some railway tracks, officials said.

Routes of some BEST buses run the city civic body’s transport wing were also diverted, they said.

A high tide of over four metres is expected around noon in the Arabian Sea, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

“It’s monsoon arrival in Mumbai today,” said Dr Jayanta Sarkar, head of the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Mumbai office.

“GOOD NEWS. Onset of SW Monsoon declared over Mumbai Thane Palghar today 9th June. Monsoon line today passing frm Valsad(Gujarat), Nagpur in Maharashtra & then Bhadrachalam Tuni..Conditions r favourable for onset of monsoon in remaining parts of Maharashtra in nxt 2,3 days,” the IMD’s head SID, Climate Research & Services at Pune, K S Hosalikar, tweeted.

Several parts of the city and suburbs witnessed heavy rainfall along with thunder in the morning.

According to the IMD, the Colaba observatory (representative of south Mumbai) received 77.4 mm rainfall, while the Santacruz observatory (representative of the suburbs) recorded 59.6 mm downpour in the last 24 hours.

As per the BMC, the island city, eastern suburbs and western suburbs recorded 48.49 mm, 66.99 mm and 48.99 mm rain, respectively, in the 24-hour period ending at 8 am on Wednesday.

The IMD has predicted cloudy sky with moderate rain/ thundershowers in the city and suburbs. There is also a possibility of heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places.

The first heavy rain of this monsoon disrupted local train services here.

There was water-logging between Sion and Chunabhatti stations on the Central Railway (CR) route.

The local train services were initially suspended on the CR’s main line between CSMT and Kurla from 9.50 am.

Later, the train services were suspended between CSMT and Thane (main line), and between CSMT and Vashi (Harbour line) from 10.20 am, CR’s chief spokesperson Shivaji Sutar said.

“Services on the Trans-Harbour line and BSU (Uran) lines are running smoothly. Also, shuttle services from Thane to Karjat/Kasara and Vashi-Panvel are running,” he said.

There was no disruption on the Western Railway route and its local train services were running normal, WR’s chief spokesperson Sumit Thakur said.

Water pumps were being operated to clear inundation, he said, adding that drains and culverts were flowing smoothly.

The IMD on Saturday confirmed the arrival of the southwest monsoon in Maharashtra as it reached Harnai in coastal Ratnagiri district. But, despite favourable conditions, the monsoon’s further progress seemed to be slow.