Heavy rains bring Mumbai to a halt on Friday
Sion station. Picture Courtesy : Kiran Mestry
Mumbaikars woke up to a rainy Friday morning as incessant rains continued to lash the city. While the rains did little to deter the never-say-die spirit of the city, it did a pretty good job of slowing everything down.
Needless to say, the city witnessed everything that one would expect from a particularly rainy day – flight delays, train delays, traffic snarls, tree falls, short circuits, waterlogging and some more waterlogging.
Rail:
In the morning, both Central and Western line were running late by a few minutes. Later, CR was brought to a halt due to heavy water logging at Sion station. But, the water was pumped out and services resumed within 30 or so minutes. It is currently running 10-15 minutes behind schedule.
WR did not face any major issues and continued to operate with little or no delays for most part. Trains on the Harbour line were running late by 20 minutes.
Road:
Motorists also found themselves in a tough spot after waterlogging was reported at multiple areas like Parel, Sion, Matunga, Dadar, Kandivali, Khar, Andheri, Pratiksha Nagar, Mazgaon, Elphinstone, Hindmata, Vikhroli, Jogeshwari, Bandra West and Kurla. Traffic on both Western Express Highway and Eastern Express Highway was also affected due to bottlenecks.
Some specific areas that witnessed major traffic snarls were:
S.V Road, Santacruz
Parel T.T
Sardar Nagar, Sion
Mehta Flyover, Matunga
Chaar Rasta, Wadala
Ram Nagar Subway, Vakola
D.N Nagar, Andheri (W)
CST Road, Kurla
Chincholi Signal, Malad
Hanuman Road, Vile Parle (E)
BEST buses were also diverted from Hindmata, King’s Circle, BPT colony, Sion and Linking Road, Bandra to ease traffic.
Flight:
All flights to and from Mumbai were delayed due to heavy rains, poor visibility and congestion. An average delay of 30 minutes was reported.
Other:
At least two tree fall incidents were reported by Friday afternoon, one in Jogeshwari and the other in Antop Hill. A short circuit incident was also reported in GTB Nagar, which the BMC was quick to address. No casualties were reported in any of the incidents.
The IMD has also predicted moderate to heavy rainfall in the city over the next 48 hours.
