Mumbai monsoon woes: Balcony collapses in heavy rain

Water logging was witnessed at Hindmata in Dadar, Parel and Sion,Kurla and Chembur. Flights operated with a delay of 15-20 minutes at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. Airlines including Vistara informed passengers to make it early to the airport due to congestion on road due to rains.

Part of a building in Kurla west came crumbling down following heavy downpour for the last 24 hours across the city. While three persons were rescued, no casualty was reported, said officials of the Mumbai Fire Brigade who were at the spot. The incident was reported at around 2.56 pm, according to the disaster management unit (DMU) of the BMC. The building — Bhushan Bhuvan near Halav bridge in Kurla west — was already named in the list of C1 category (dangerously dilapidated). The building couldn’t sustain heavy downpour leading to one of the balconies collapsing, a civic official said.

As per data released by the DMU, around 13 house and wall collapse incidents were reported across the city on Sunday. This includes four cases in the city, four in the western suburbs and 5 in the eastern suburbs.

No casualty was reported in any of the 13 cases. According to IMD, while Colaba received up to 14 centimetre of rainfall (more than 150 mm) Sunday, parts of Santa Cruz received 66 millimetre rainfall. Even parts of western suburbs including Versova received 130 mm rainfall while Marol received 160.69 mm rainfall till 3 pm on Sunday “Colaba rain can not be classified as highest of the season right now. The final details would come at 8.30 am on Monday,” said K S Hosalikar, deputy director generally, IMD.

The downpour brought back traffic woes for the city. Train services were affected on the main and harbour lines on the Central Railway line. The Central Railway also cancelled a mega block between Vidyavihar and Byculla stations due to interruption of train services during rains, however, they carried out a mega block on the harbour line to demolish an underused bridge near Tilak Nagar station.” There was a technical fault at Vidyavihar station in the morning. Despite heavy rains, waterlogging was not witnessed near tracks,” a senior railway official said.

Water logging was witnessed at Hindmata in Dadar, Parel and Sion,Kurla and Chembur. Flights operated with a delay of 15-20 minutes at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. Airlines including Vistara informed passengers to make it early to the airport due to congestion on road due to rains.

In Thane, incessant rains over the weekend, measuring over 200mm over 24 hours led to waterlogging in several places. In Kalyan two men were rescued on Saturday evening from the Bhatsa river, and the municipal authorities are preparing the village settlements around the river areas for flood-like situations. “Some bridges have gone underwater. We are working on managing the situation,” an officer from KDMC said. In Thane, the areas around Vandana Talkies and Rabodi were heavily waterlogged on Sunday. “We are regulating all manholes and ensuring that any blockage is cleared at the earliest,” an officer from the TMC said.

In neighbouring Navi Mumbai, roads between Kalamboli and Kharghar were jammed after waterlogging, coupled with potholes, made the traffic crawl. “Some of us had to walk back home, because the traffic wasn’t getting better. There were some vehicles parked near the shops on the either side of the roads, which added to the confusion,” said Pravin Dikshit, a commuter going to Kharghar. “We have put towing vans into action and are towing away vehicles blocking the road,” said a traffic official.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD), Mumbai has predicted heavy rainfall in the next 48 hours. According to the forecast, parts of greater Mumbai will witness heavy to very heavy rainfall.