Heavy rains keep weekend date with city

Mumbaikars stayed indoors as it showered down fourth Saturday in a row

The city is almost forgetting what outdoor weekends are like as heavy rains forced Mumbaikars to stay put once again. While the city recorded 43.79mm of rain, the eastern suburbs recorded 61.13mm rainfall and the western suburbs received 60.66mm.
There was water-logging in most parts of the city and its adjoining suburbs, in addition to minor house collapses in some parts of Mumbai. Suburban rail services were running behind schedule, but they were not disrupted.
Water-logging began right from the morning as the usual suspects — spots like Hindmata Junction, Kings Circle, parts of Juhu and Andheri, went underwater. Every time the rains stopped, waters receded as BMC workers got busy opening manhole covers. However, heavy rains began again in the afternoon leading to water-logging between 1pm and 2pm near Hindmata, Parel and Grant Road. Traffic in these areas was diverted to other roads.
There were problems for the suburban railways at Byculla and Kalyan stations on the Central Railway. Heavy rains played spoilsport with visibility at both stations, forcing motormen to slow down the trains, thus keeping rail services behind schedule.
"Due to lack of visibility, a speed restriction was imposed on the motorman, but there was no disruption in train services. The motormen were running the trains at a speed of 30 kmph instead of the average 60 kmph," said Shriniwas C Mudgerikar, chief spokesperson, Central Railways.
There were also six incidents of minor house collapse. According to the BMC, in the first incident at Khar, a wall belonging to a two-storey chawl collapsed. A part of an old building collapsed at Patthe Bapurao Marg. Portions of a balcony collapsed at chawls in Vidya Vihar and Mulund. No casualties were reported in these incidents.
Meanwhile, the downpour has contributed generously to the catchment area of the lakes. The lake levels are rising significantly with increase in the water content, although it is still a far cry from what is required to cool off Mumbai's water problems. As of today, useful water content in these lakes is at 7,05,477 million litres. Last year, during this time, the usable water content was at 7,19,094 million litres.
"We hope that the rain will continue to fill all the lakes and finish the water woes of the city," Anil Diggikar, additional municipal commissioner said. "The BMC is already releasing 100 million litres extra water every day. We will review the water situation on August 15," he added.