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Downpour lashes Mumbai, 'orange' alert for Wednesday

Last updated on: July 19, 2023 00:42 IST

Mumbai and its suburbs received moderate to heavy rainfall during the day and the weather department has issued an orange alert for the city for Wednesday predicting heavy to very heavy rainfall at some places, officials said.

IMAGE: People walk outside CST station on a rainy in Mumbai. Photograph: Sahil Salvi for Rediff.com

The weather bureau has issued a red alert for neighbouring Raigad and Palghar districts predicting heavy to very rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy rain at isolated places for Wednesday. An orange alert is sounded for Thane district.

As per the IMD (India Meteorological Department) classification, an orange alert is for a rainfall range between 115.6 mm to 204.4 mm in a day, while a red alert is issued when rainfall above 204.5 mm is expected for a 24-hour duration.

 

Meanwhile, as the day progressed, the intensity of rain in Mumbai reduced on Tuesday.

Most areas of the island city and also suburbs received light or moderate rainfall with intermittent spells of heavy rain.

The island city of Mumbai, eastern suburbs, and western suburbs received 17.44 mm, 22.55 mm and 18.87 mm rainfall, respectively, between 8 am and 6 pm, the city civic body said.

Earlier in the day, suburban services of the Central Railway were affected due to the rain, coupled with the failure of an express train engine during the morning rush hours.

Intermittent heavy rains lashed Bandra, Dahisar, Chembur, Fort, Matunga, Byculla and other areas of the city on Monday night, as per civic officials.

There was no major waterlogging anywhere on Tuesday morning, they said.

Road traffic was overall normal.

Central Railway's (CR) chief public relations officer Dr Shivraj Manaspure told PTI that the engine of the Gorakhpur-LTT Superfast Express developed a technical snag at Atgaon station in the neighbouring Thane district, but they arranged a relief engine for the train.

Trains on the route were diverted via a loop line, he said.

Some commuters complained the CR suburban services were delayed by 10-15 minutes since early morning, but after the engine failure incident, the trains were running late by 20 to 25 minutes.

They also claimed some suburban trains were cancelled and as a result, crowds swelled on platforms and trains during the morning rush time.

A Western Railway spokesperson said suburban services on their network were normal.

Bus services of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking were normal and there was no route diversion due to the rains, civic officials said.

In its 'district forecast and warnings' for the next five days issued on Monday, the IMD Mumbai forecast 'heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places' in the city on Tuesday.

The IMD Mumbai officials said their observatories in Colaba (representative of the island city) and Santacruz (representative of suburbs) recorded 102.4 mm and 109.7 mm of rainfall, respectively, in the 24 hours ending at 8.30 am on Tuesday.

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