Vehicular traffic across the city was affected on Tuesday. (Express Photo by Arul Horizon)
Maharashtra and Gujarat have been put on high alert after heavy rain lashed parts of Konkan, particularly Mumbai, on Tuesday, throwing normal life completely out of gear. According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), Konkan received 500 per cent excess rainfall on Tuesday, recording 99 mm of rainfall when its normal for the day is only 16.5 mm.
According to IMD, Santacruz in Mumbai received 298 mm in just nine hours, which was nearly 30 times more than the city’s daily average rainfall for this time of the day. IMD has forecast very heavy rains to continue over the next 48 hours over Konkan, north Madhya Maharashtra, Gujarat and south-east Rajasthan until August 31.
Though it has been raining continuously since August 25, rainfall activity intensified over the west coast during the wee hours of Tuesday. Rainfall of this magnitude is not new for Mumbai and it is only the first heavy downpour that the capital has witnessed during this monsoon season.
“It is under the influence of low pressure system, which during the day intensified into a well-marked low pressure, lying over west Madhya Pradesh that Mumbai, north Maharashtra and some districts in Konkan reported heightened rainfall activity,” informed A K Srivastava, head, climate monitoring and analysis group, IMD, Pune.
Other localities in Mumbai which reported about 200 mm rainfall during the same period were Worli, Chembur, Vikhroli and Chembur. IMD officials stated that the intervening night of Wednesday will be crucial and will play a decisive role in tracing the well-marked low pressure system, that is expected to not just intensify, but also move and lay over Maharashtra-Gujarat border.
“This system, which will mostly intensify into a depression, is also likely to get an impetus from additional inflow of moisture from the Arabian Sea. This will result in heavy rains at isolated places in north Konkan and north Madhya Maharashtra on Wednesday,” added Srivastava.
This year, Gujarat has already bore the brunt of floods earlier this month and this will be the second time for Gujarat to face intense rainfall. Surat (108mm), Bhavnagar (96mm) were some of the wettest cities in Gujarat on Tuesday. Met officials said the rainfall intensity will subside only after the depression moves over Gujarat which is expected by Thursday before it fizzles out.
Two NDRF teams from Pune deployed in Mumbai
The Fifth Battalion of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), headquartered in Talegon in Pune, has dispatched two teams to Mumbai, in addition to the three teams already stationed in Andheri. The local Army units are ready to be pressed into action as and when request comes from the local administration, defence officials said.
Anupam Shrivastava, the Commandant of the Talegaon headquartered Fifth Battalion of the NDRF, said, “We have three teams already stationed in Andheri in Mumbai and on Tuesday morning, we sent two additional teams, which will be pre-positioned in Mumbai considering the forecast for next two days. We are also continuously monitoring the situation in Pune, Nashik and surrounding districts.”
Each self-sustained team of the NDRF consists of 45 persons, equipped with boats, rescue equipment. The team includes engineers, paramedics, technicians and dog squad. Army authorities have said that their location formations stationed in Colaba and Kalina in Mumbai are on standby and are ready to be pressed into action as and when a request is received from the local administrations in Mumbai.
Rains slow down city’s vehicular traffic
Though considerably less, Pune has also been witnessing continuous rainfall for the last few days, resulting in traffic snarls in various parts of the city on Tuesday. As per the information given by Pune City Traffic control room, the traffic had significantly slowed down on arterial roads in the areas like Hadapsar, Bopodi, Dapodi, Hinjewadi, Warje, Swargate and Moshi in the last two days. Traffic snarls were reported both in the morning and evening.
An officer from the traffic control branch said, “The traffic slowed down due to various reasons like waterlogging, non-functioning of some of the traffic signals, potholes on some patches of the road and even due to some heavy vehicles breaking down. Personnel from all our traffic divisions were on road round-the-clock, trying best to manage the traffic.”
Traffic on Pune-Mumbai e-way, old highway stopped
THE vehicular traffic towards Mumbai on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway and Old Highway was stopped by the Highway Police from Tuesday evening to avoid further worsening of traffic situation in Mumbai. The two highways will remain closed till the further instructions from the state government, police officials added.
The State Highway police began stopping the vehicles on the expressway and the Old highway since 6.30 pm on Tuesday. Amol Tambe, Superintendent of Police with the Pune division of Highway Police, said, “As per instructions from our Mumbai headquarters, the traffic on the Expressway and Old Highway has been stopped from evening. We are now asking the commuters to turn back from the Toll Plazas at Urse, Kusgaon and further at Khalapur. Those who can not turn back will be asked to remain where they are. This step has been taken to avoid the increase in the number of vehicles in Mumbai. The further rise in the number will not only make it difficult for existing vehicles but those going in will be stranded.” Tambe added, “Till the further instructions, we will hold the traffic towards Mumbai at the toll booths, from where they can turn back.”
