Heavy rain coupled with thunder storm shad Mumbaiites struggling to get home on Monday evening. This is the first timesinceJune11,whenthemon- soon officially set in, that the city has experienced heavy rainfall.
Weathermen said Mumbai its should be prepared for in ten se showers on Tuesday, which will also see higher tide levels (4.7metres at 2.37 pm).
“Clouds are moving from the Arabian Sea to land, which is a good weather pattern system.
Therefore, there has been intense rain in both south and north Mumbai,” said R.V.
Sharma, deputy director general, western region, India Meteorological Department.
“Previously,the clouds were moving from land to sea and so did not carry too much moisture.” On Monday, Colaba received 79.8 mm of rainfall and Santacruz 56.9mmtill 8.30pm.
The heavy rain felled to water logging in several low-lying areas, disrupting traffic, especially at major junction sin the city as people hurried to get home.
The first spell of heavy rain son Monday put a question mark on the municipal corporation’s claims on being monsoon ready. Low-lying areas got water logged, throwing traffic out of gear in some areas. Train services too were affected.
According to the data available with the BMC,on Monday, Colaba recorded 79.8 millimeter (mm) of rainfall till 8.30pm while Santacruz received 56.9 mm of rainfall. The maximum rainfall was recorded over Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus—21mm. Traffic was disrupted at Hindmata, aperennial waterlogging spot. “Withinafew minutes of rainfall, the Hindmata junction was waterlogged and people hadtowadethroughankle-deep water,” said Nitin Joshi, a resident of Parel. Kalachowkie, Byculla, Worli, Sewri, near Kurladepot, Sant Dnyaneshwar Marg, Juhu and Goregaon (E) too got flooded.

“Water from anullah on Arun Kumar Vaidya Marg over flowed and entered the Oberoi Mall premises inGoregoan(E),” said acivic official, requesting anonymity.
Kurla resident Rupesh Singh said LBS Road from Kurla BEST depot to Sahara Hotel was sub merged under at least six inches of water.But some flood-prone spots, such as Milan subway, Andheri subway, Wadala and Sakhubai Mohite Margat Lower Parel, did not go under. The strong winds uprooted 70 trees—19inthe island city, 16 in the western suburbs and 35 in the eastern suburbs.

While Central Railway services were affected by 15 minutes due to the downpour at Masjid, Parel, Chinchpokli, Currey Road,Sion, Kurla, Western Railway claims it faced no problems. “Wehavedeployed500men round-the-clock in the low-lying areas. The pumps will be used if the water level rises,” said S. Mudgerikar,CRchief public relations officer. There are nearly 50 pumps placed along the central line to remove the excess floodwater. Nitin David, WR public relations officer, said: “Sometrains were running five to seven minutes late. But there were no problems with the services.” However, there was bad news for the city facing water cut. Except Tansa, which recorded10.2mm of rainfall, the catchments areas of the other five lakes that supply water to the city did not receive any rainfall on Monday.