IANS/Mumbai
At least four people, including two minors, were killed as heavy rains lashed Mumbai and surrounding areas for the second consecutive day yesterday, throwing normal life out of gear, officials said.
Mumbai’s lifeline, the suburban railways, which carry over 8mn commuters daily, was badly hit with waterlogging on tracks.
Peak-hour commuters were delayed. Though the suburban trains were running late by around 30 minutes on the Western Railway (WR) and Central Railway (CR), the only dislocation of train services was on the Thane sector of the suburban section.
In the city, many low-lying areas, including railway lines, were water-logged or flooded, hampering movement of road and rail traffic.
The WR’s long-distance services took a severe drubbing as incessant rains caused heavy flooding on railway lines in north Maharashtra and south Gujarat, officials said.
All train services on the WR’s Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Mumbai-New Delhi sectors were badly hit due to floods in and around Valsad in south Gujarat.
This resulted in several cancellations, major delays or short termination of various important trains on these sectors, including the Flying Ranee, Karnavati Express, Double-Decker Express, August Kranti Rajdhani Express, Golden Temple Mail and others, a WR official said.
Valsad in south Gujarat was among the worst-hit with two-feet-deep water inside the station, preventing movement of local and long-distance trains.
In Mumbai, several low-lying areas remained submerged with up to knee-deep water in the city and suburbs; a similar situation was reported from several areas in neighbouring Thane, hitting vehicular movement badly.
By yesterday evening 5pm, Mumbai city recorded 8.23cm rains, eastern suburbs 8.33cm and western suburbs 8.11 cm.