5 killed as rains clobber Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad in Maharashtra

Torrential rains clobbered large areas of Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra seriously hitting road traffic and rail operations, claiming at least five lives in rain-related incidents, officials said here on Monday.

Mumbai's lifeline, the suburban locals on Western Railway (WR) and Central Railway (CR) were running between 15-30 minutes late on account of waterlogging on the railway tracks and periphery of several stations like Sion, Chinchpokli and Matunga, inconveniencing office-goers due to overnight rains that lashed the city.

On the WR, the downpour had dislocated train movement due to heavy rains in south Gujarat and north-west Maharashtra, but services were restored (after nearly 90 minutes) with severe speed restrictions by 9.10 a.m. on Monday.

WR General Manager AK Gupta left for the affected track sites between Bhilad-Sanjan (south Gujarat), even as several mail and express trains bound for Mumbai and from Mumbai to various destinations like Gujarat and Delhi, were delayed at various points en route.

The Mumbai morning peak road traffic was badly hit as waterlogging was reported in some parts of the Eastern and Western Express Highways (EEH-WEH), main and arterial roads and many low-lying areas of the city and suburbs and traffic to and from adjoining Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts.

There was flooding in several areas like Chunabhatti, Wadala, Dadar, Malad, Kurla, Gamdevi, Santacruc-Chembur Link Road and other places hitting traffic movement severely and delaying school buses transporting kids to their schools.

The Mumbai Fire Brigade, NDRF and other emergency services have launched relief operations but there are no reports of any casualties.

According to IMD, till 8.30 am in the past 24 hours, Mumbai suburbs received a 231.5 mm and the city got 100 mm rains, with predictions of more heavy rains over the next two days.

Deaths reported due to heavy rains

Two persons were killed last evening when a tree fell on them near Metro Cinema in south Mumbai, said an official from the disaster management unit of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

A 13-year-old boy was killed and his parents were injured when an adjacent wall collapsed on their house at Wadol village in Ambernath taluka of Thane around 2.15 am today, the district civic body's regional disaster management cell chief Santosh Kadam said.

In another incident, a 65-feet compound wall of a housing complex in Thane city collapsed this morning, crushing two cars and another vehicle, he said. The district received 229.81 mm rain in the last 24 hours, Kadam added.

In Mumbai, a huge part of a compound caved-in at Antop Hill area in Wadala. Around 15 cars were damaged with some vehicles getting buried under the debris, an official of the BMC's disaster management cell said. No casualty was reported in the incident, he said.

A portion of the wall of an under-construction highrise at Lords Estate in Antop Hill trapping many residents and damaging over a dozen private cars parked in a neighbouring society premises.

With PTI inputs