Rains provide relief, but Mumbaikars' travails continue

Travails of a quintessential Mumbaikar's daily travel continued on Wednesday though there has been a let up in high intensity pounding of rain.

IMD's Mumbai-based Regional Meteorological Centre removed the heavy rainfall warning issued for Mumbai and its suburbs.

"The cyclonic circulation over Chhattisgarh and neighborhood moved northwards," the weathermen said.

In the last 36 hours, parts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region received 130 to 150 mm rainfall.

On Wednesday, the far eastern suburbs like Kalyan, Dombivli, Ambernath, Badlapur slowly limped back to normalcy.

However, the far western suburbs of Vasai-Virar continued to be affected because of waterlogging.

Severe traffic jams were reported from Western Express Highway, Eastern Express Highway, Ghodbunder Road, Mumbra Bypass, Ambadi Road and the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway.

Both Central Railway and Western Railway were operational but trains were delayed.

"Trains were packed with commuters and there was super rush in platforms," pointed out Jatin Desai, a veteran activist and journalist, who stays in Goregaon.

The Vasai-Nalasopara-Virar section that saw maximum waterlogging.

"Whether it is eastern suburbs or western suburbs, it was taking more than four to five hours to reach south Mumbai," said Rajan More, a resident of Vasai.

"I travelled from Powai to Parel within Mumbai by car. It took me three-and-a-half hours... whereas it generally takes 45 minutes to one hour," said advertising professional P M Menon.