25 people have died in separate incidents of structural collapse trigerred by incessant overnight rainfall in Mumbai and adjoining areas, officials said on Sunday. At least 17 died after a wall collapsed on shanties due to landslide in Navi Mumbai’s Chembur, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) said.
A number of people are feared trapped and a rescue operation is currently underway, PTI reported.
Meanwhile, seven others died after a single-storey residential building collapsed in Vikhroli area, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. Two others were injured and sent to hospital for treatment.
Another 16-year-old boy died after a forest department compound wall collapsed in Bhandup, an official said.
The rains have also disrupted the city’s local train services, with the Central Main and Harbour lines.
This comes after the city recorded its second highest rainfall in a 24-hour period in a decade. The Indian Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Santacruz observatory had confirmed on Friday that the city received 253.3mm of rainfall between July 15-16.
It was the highest on-record since July 26, 2005, when the city received a rainfall of 944mm in 24 hours. The IMD has issued a red alert for the entire city.
Alerts by the IMD are colour-coded from green to red. A ‘green’ alert stands for ‘no warning’: no action needs to be taken by the authorities, and the forecast is of light to moderate rain. A ‘red’ alert stands for “warning”, and asks authorities to “take action”. An ‘orange’ alert indicates that the authorities are expected to “be prepared”.
The department also said Mumbai will receive “heavy to very heavy” rainfall at a few places with extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his grief at the loss of lives and has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh for the families of the deceased. Rs 50,000 will be given to those injured.