Heavy rains lashed Mumbai since late morning on Friday leading to panic among many Mumbaikars, who have yet to fully recover from the July 26 cloudburst that caused heavy loss of life and property.
Normal life was thrown out of gear with many traffic jams across the city as people began rushing back home from their offices. Mumbai's suburban trains, however, were plying albeit slightly behind schedule. Some offices have already declared a half-day at work to help employees reach home before anything untoward happens.
The weather bureau has predicted heavy rainfall for the next 24 hours in Mumbai and surrounding areas, but categorically stated that there is no danger warning being issued so far.
A weather bureau official confirmed to rediff.com that Friday's rain is not a result of any cloudburst.
Speaking to rediff.com, Krishna Vats, Secretary, Relief and Rehabilitation, Maharasthra, said: "The weather bureau has recorded 12 mm of rain in Mumbai so far, which is far below the July 26 downpour when 944 mm of rain was recorded in a single day."
Vats, a member of the state's Disaster Management Committee, said that he was in New Delhi and was in regular touch with the officials in Mumbai and 'taking a regular update.' He said, "At present there is no major water clogging incident reported in Mumbai city. The trains in Mumbai are running on time so far, but there have been traffic jams reported."
Shailendra Kumar, Western Railway Public Relation Officer said that slow trains were running 10 minutes late because of a signal failure. "The fast trains are running on time and the signal failure at Bandra has caused ten minute delay of slow trains," said Kumar. He further added that the water that was clogged is receding and he hoped that everything will return to normalcy in an hour's time. "At present the situation is fine and improving."
On the central line, too, the trains were running slow but there was a problem at Sion station where the water had clogged, causing some delay. "The trains were halted between Kurla and Sion but now the water is receding and we hope to resume the service soon. We hope normalcy will be restored in an hours time," added a central railway spokesperson.
There was not much damage to life or property, except a solitary incident of a landslide at Antop Hill in north-central Mumbai that left four persons injured, police sources said.
Mumbai Police Control Room authorities said water logging was reported at Andheri, Khar and Milan subways, Sahar-Bahar junction, Vile Parle junction, Coldvita lane in MIDC (all in western suburbs), Ghatkopar-Narayannagar junction, Kurla depot-Wadia junction and Sion circle (eastern suburbs), Hindmata junction and Bharatmata junction in central Mumbai.
"Water level was almost one and half feet at these junctions as a result of which traffic had come virtually to a halt," police sources said.
Many schools have voluntarily given a half-day holiday to children fearing a July 26-like situation, when a cloudburst had brought Mumbai to a grinding halt. Nearly 1,000 people had died due to flooding and subsequent diseases caused by rotting carcasses and garbage.
Meanwhile, Municipal Commissioner Johny Joseph has urged the public not to panic.
(With inputs from PTI)
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