Two killed as downpour paralyses Mumbai; Maharashtra crawls

Mumbai, June 19: Torrential rains lashed Mumbai and the surrounding areas on Friday, killing two persons, severely affecting road, rail and air traffic and inconveniencing lakhs of daily commuters barely a week after the monsoon set in in the region. Mumbai city recorded 283 mm rainfall while the suburbs averaged 209 mm in the past 24 hours. Till Friday evening, the city had recorded another 72 mm rainfall, and 66 mm and 50 mm downpour in the eastern and western suburbs respectively. Maharashtra’s coastal regions, including Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratgiri and Sindhudurg too experienced torrential rain, hitting normal life with flooding in several towns and villages.
Heavy rain was reported from Pune, Satara, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, shik and other cities, slowing down normal life. More rain is in store for the metropolitan city, coastal Konkan and other parts of Maharashtra over the weekend, accompanied by strong winds and a very rough sea, Mumbai weather bureau director V.K. Rajeev said.
The dead included Ranjit Gupta, 60, and Gaurav Karnik, 5, living in a building in Wadala, who were electrocuted by loose live wires. Personnel of the tiol Disaster Relief Force, Territorial Army, Mumbai Police, fire brigade, home guards and other agencies apart from Indian vy ships and helicopters were on standby along with boats, life rafts and other equipment to tackle any emergency. Rain crippled the Mumbai lifeline - the suburban railway network - as rainwater waterlogged the tracks, preventing lakhs from commuting to and from their homes and workplaces. But the two new showpieces - the Mumbai Metro Rail and Monorail - functioned normally, a spokesperson for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) said. While Central Railway (CR) and Harbour Line, and Western Railway (WR) started a few services in the early hours, they were delayed and later suspended in the city, rail officials and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Disaster Cell said.
However, services continued on the mainland beyond Thane, Karjat-Kasara and Panvel sections of CR and beyond Vasai on WR. By late Friday afternoon, the WR resumed skeletal services from Churchgate to Andheri and beyond. Angry people vented their ire against the civic body and the state government on social networking sites for the “shoddy pre-monsoon cleaning up operations” costing several billion of rupees.
Rainwater entered low-lying homes, especially in slums, tenements and other vulnerable areas in different parts of the city.  (IANS)

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