Images of the deluge of July 2005 seemed to return to people of Mumbai as they waded through waist-deep waters with stranded vehicles and cooking gas cylinders floating in floodwaters amid torrential rainfall over the past few days.
A high tide accompanied by rainfall following a cloudburst had created havoc in India’s commercial capital on July 26, 2005 — the memories of which are came back when Mumbai, spread over 600 sq km, experienced nearly 944.2 mm rainfall in 24 hours.
What Mumbai received was not even one-third of what was reported 16 years ago, but these disruptions are now frequent during the monsoon.
In Vasai-Virar urban conglomeration of Mumbai, which received over 180 mm rainfall, water gushed into the ground floor homes and shops at several places.
“We have not caught up with times to upgrade and improve infrastructure in the suburbs of Mumbai…its the same story every year,’ said social activist and Vasai-Virar AAP leader Susheel Dwivedi.
In the Madhuban area salt-pans of Vasai in Palghar district, the civic body undertook a rescue operation through boats. Along the Western Express Highway, people could be seen walking in knee-deep waters.
“I could see hundreds of people walking on the island of the road as the water level rose,” said Q N Khan, a resident of Kandivli suburbs in Mumbai.
"The rainfall this time was on a Sunday and after midnight. This actually reduced the chaos," added AK Joshi, a resident of Badlapur in Thane district.
(Published 18 July 2021, 16:12 IST)
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