Rain hits normal life in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Gurgaon

Heavy rains lashed Mumbai late on Thursday night, slowing down the early morning and peak hour rail, road and air traffic in the commercial capital and its suburbs.

Traffic jams were reported from arterial roads like Western Express Highway, Eastern Express Highway and Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road as people struggled to get to work. Services of the Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) were delayed by 10 to 15 minutes in the morning, though was resorted to normalcy by afternoon.  The CR’s Trans-Harbour services were the worst-hit among the four lines.  

Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) experienced delays up to 20 minutes in take-offs and landings of flights.   There were reports of heavy rain in Mumbai and the three adjoining districts of Thane, Palghar and Raigad.  The fresh  spell of rain started on Thursday evening. 

However, it intensified around midnight and continued till the early hours – resulting in water-logging at several parts of low-lying areas of Mumbai like Sion, King’s Circle, Andheri Subway and Kurla.

The Regional Meteorological Observatory predicted heavy rain for the next 48 hours for the city and the Konkan coast. “Heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to occur at isolated places in districts of North Konkan during 96 hours in South Konkan-Goa during the next 120 hours,” the weathermen said, predicting a wet weekend.