Heavy rains caves roads and buries cars; trains delayed

The nation received the monsoon this year with heavy rains that have wreaked havoc to life and property.

Mumbai came to a standstill on Monday — just a few days after the onset of monsoon — as overnight rains led to the usual chaos of delayed trains, water-logged roads, horrific traffic snarls, and a rather scary wall collapse in a central neighbourhood of the city.

A large part of the boundary wall of a plush apartment complex in Wadala collapsed and subsided in the morning, burying nearly a dozen cars. The damaged cars, mostly belonging to residents of the complex — Lloyds Estate — were stuck in debris.

The building, home to senior lawyers, judges and businessmen, was vacated by civic authorities. No one was injured in the incident.

Residents of the building complained that construction work in the vicinity had weakened the foundation of their boundary wall that gave way on Monday.

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Local trains, the city’s lifeline, were running behind schedule as usual, at the hint of the first heavy rains this season. Water-logging was reported from low-lying areas and office-goers and vehicles found it difficult to navigate roads in large parts of the city.

Meanwhile, Mumbai’s civic body officials placed pumps on standby in neighbourhoods that are prone to water-logging.

The Indian Meteorological Department has said that heavy to very heavy rains are expected to continue.

Two people died and five were injured on Sunday after a tree fell on them near Metro Cinema at MG Road in South Mumbai’s Marine Lines area, according to the media.

A 13-year-old boy was killed and his parents were injured when an adjacent wall collapsed on their house at Wadol village in Ambernath taluka of Thane around 2:15 AM today, the district civic body’s regional disaster management cell chief Santosh Kadam told the media

In another incident, a 65-feet compound wall of a housing complex in Thane city collapsed this morning, crushing two cars and another vehicle, he said.

Mumbai received 231.4 mm rain since Sunday, an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. So much rainfall is categorised as extremely heavy showers, IMD’s Mumbai Director Ajay Kumar said.

“This is the first extremely heavy rainfall recorded in Mumbai in the current season. The rain intensity has gone up since yesterday afternoon and is expected to continue further,” he said.

Three people have died in rain-related incidents in Mumbai and Thane in the last 24 hours. The downpour led to water-logging in subways in suburbs of Andheri, Khar and Malad, severely impacting the rush hour traffic. A container broke down on a bridge on the Eastern Express Highway, which also put the traffic in the slow lane.

The Mumbai Police said they are prepared. “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,” the official handle tweeted