Flash floods in the Ulhasnagar and Vasai areas on the outskirts of greater Mumbai claimed two lives on Thursday even as heavy rain lashed the metro, Thane and other adjoining areas for the third consecutive day, throwing normal life out of gear.
Eight-year-old Irfan Jalauddin Shaikh and Dilip Parab,18, met the watery grave in Vasai after heavy rain in the district inundated several low-lying areas, according to Disaster Cell officials here.
Incessant showers since three days and huge boulders on the road have led to the disruption of vehicular traffic at Malshej Ghats near Murbad in Thane. Consequently, the Mumbra bypass was also closed for traffic following damaged roads, officials said.
Many low-lying areas in Mumbai, including railway lines, had to face fury of monsoon which led to water-logging and flooding, adversely affecting the movement of road and rail traffic. So much so that the suburban railways, which is the Mumbai's lifeline – carrying over eight million commuters per day – has been badly hit with waterlogging on tracks. Peak-hour commuters were stranded.
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. The WR’s long-distance services were hit 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.
In Mumbai, several low-lying areas in the city and suburbs remained submerged under knee-deep water; a similar situation was reported from several areas in neighbouring Thane, hitting vehicular movement badly. At 5 pm on Thursday, Mumbai city recorded 8.23 cm rain, eastern suburbs 8.33 cm and western suburbs 8.11 cm.
Weather Bureau Director V K Rajeev said heavy rain is expected to continue lashing Mumbai, coastal Konkan and other parts of the state for the next two days.