Four people were killed and train movements between Valsad and Mumbai paralysed as heavy rains lashed South Gujarat on Monday. Rain also caused flooding in low-lying areas and snapping electricity in several districts of south Gujarat. The Vadodara to Valsad stretch witnessed huge downpour. Two persons died of electrocution in Vadodara, and thousands of passengers were left stranded at railways stations as at least 11 trains to and from Mumbai, including Karnavati Express, Shatabdi Express, and Suryanagiri Express were delayed.
Areas in Valsad were pounded by over 200 mm rainfall, with Umergaon on Gujarat-Maharashtra border receiving 550 mm in 30 hours. Jayanta Sarkar, regional director, Indian Meteorological Department, said due to cyclonic circulation over north Konkan and adjoining south Gujarat areas, parts of southern Gujarat and coastal Saurashtra will receive heavy to very heavy rains in the next two days. Railway crossing at Udwada was closed for almost one hour as flood waters washed the earth on either side of the railway line at several places between Sanjan and Bhilad.
Trains between Mumbai and Ahmedabad was running late by almost an hour or two. AK Gupta, general manager of Western Railways, reached a site between Bhilad and Sanjan to take stock of the situation. He oversaw the restoration work that immediately begun after the heavy flooding. Officials said rail traffic resumed at a speed of 10 kmph in view of safety on affected lines.
Wall caves in in Mumbai; cars buried
A portion of a wall at an apartment complex in Mumbai collapsed following incessant rain, causing a road to cave in and taking down at least 20 parked cars. Dramatic visuals of the 32-storey Lloyds estate in Antop Hill, Wadala was seen as several cars were either buried or stuck in debris. A resident said, “It has been raining continuously for the last few days and around 4 this morning, there was a deafening sound and the boundary wall of our complex came crashing. After that the road where we park our cars caved in. It was almost like a landslide and 15-20 cars went with it.”
Mumbai has received 231.4 mm rain since Sunday. IMD's Mumbai Director Ajay Kumar said so much rainfall is categorised as extremely heavy showers. “This is the first extremely heavy rainfall recorded in Mumbai in the current season. The rain intensity has gone up since Sunday afternoon and is expected to continue further.” Three people have already died in rain-related incidents in Mumbai and Thane this week alone. The downpour caused water-logging in subways in suburbs of Andheri, Khar, and Malad, severely impacting the rush hour traffic.
The Mumbai Police tweeted, “The showers are heavy but so is our 'bandobast' on the streets to 'be there' for Mumbaikars. We are #AlwaysUpForDuty to help you reach your destination with a little care & caution from you during your journey #RoadSafety #MumbaiRains”.
