Mumbai Rains: Red alert issued for tomorrow in Mumbai, Thane & Palghar

Mumbai: In the wake of heavy rainfall & keeping in mind the drowning incidents, all the beaches in Mumbai shall be opened to the general public from 6 am to 10 am only: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation

Traffic on the Mumbai-Goa national highway has been diverted following the landslide in the Parshuram Ghat section near Chiplun, police said on Thursday. Vehicles can pass through the Chirni-Lote-Kalambaste road instead of Parshuram Ghat where a landslide took place due to heavy rains on Monday, officials said. As the work to remove the debris is underway, the Ghat will be closed for traffic for the next two days, they added.

In last 3-4 days central Maharashtra and Konkan region received good rainfall due to favourable conditions of monsoon. It will remain same for next 4-5 days: 

The island city (south Mumbai) received 82 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours, while the eastern and western suburbs received 109 mm and 106 mm downpour.

Palghar received an average 89.27 mm downpour in the 24-hour period ending at 10 am on Thursday, with Wada taluka receiving the maximum 135 mm rainfall.

District Collector Dr Manik Gursal has instructed all sub-divisional officers and tehsildars to be on alert and take necessary steps to provide assistance in the present situation.

A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was kept on alert to provide assistance whenever required, district disaster cell chief Vivekanand Kadam said.

Two persons were washed away in flood waters and one person was injured after a portion of his house collapsed following heavy rains in Maharashtra's Palghar district, officials said on Thursday. At least 32 houses were also partially damaged in different talukas of Palghar due to the heavy showers, an official from the district administration said.

Due to good rainfall in the catchment areas of reservoirs supplying water to the city, their levels improved up to 19 per cent on Thursday morning, a civic official said.

The suburban services were delayed by a few minutes, due to heavy rainfall in Mumbai and neighbouring Thane district, he said. The Western Railway said its "train services were running normal", but some passengers complained of trains on the route running late by a few minutes and overcrowding in coaches.

While there was no water-logging on rail tracks in Mumbai, a small portion of a wall collapsed between Masjid and Sandhurst Road stations in south Mumbai on the down (north-bound) track of the Harbour Line, affecting train operations on the route for some time, a Central Railway official said.

The decomposed body of a man was found in a swollen drain in Maharashtra's Palghar district which has been witnessing heavy rains since the last few days, a fire official said on Thursday. A police official said they suspect that the deceased, identified as Rahul Vishwakarma, might have slipped into the drain amid the heavy showers and got washed away. Local firemen got a call around 4 pm on Wednesday from a person who spotted the body in the drain in Madhuban locality of Vasai township, an official from the Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation's fire services said. The firemen rushed to the spot and fished out the body, which was highly decomposed, and sent it to a government hospital for postmortem, he said. Vishwakarma worked in a local factory, an official from Valiv police station said, adding that they have registered a case of accidental death. There was water-logging in many areas following heavy downpour in Vasai and Virar towns here since Wednesday.

The IMD has predicted the possibility of occasional strong winds reaching 40-50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph in Mumbai.

Mumbaikars had no respite from heavy rains which continued to lash the city for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday, delaying local train services on the Central Railway route following a wall collapse on a track, officials said.

Mumbai Regional Meteorological Centre on Wednesday issued a heavy rainfall alert for the next five days for Mumbai, Thane and other parts of Maharashtra.

In Palghar district, the wall of a Zilla Parishad school collapsed in Dahanu taluka on the intervening night of Tuesday-Wednesday after heavy downpour, an official from the district disaster management cell said.

Heavy overnight rains caused flooding at various places in Maharashtra's Thane district and also led to water-logging around Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's residence in the city on Thursday morning, officials said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert in Mumbai and Thane due to heavy rainfall, waterlogging and landslides in some parts. 

A red alert has been issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in the Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg areas of Maharashtra, till July 9. Meanwhile, Palghar, Pune, Kolhapur and Satara are on red alert till July 8. Mumbai and Thane are on orange alert till July 10.

The Central Railways on Thursday informed that some trains are running late due to heavy downpour and water logging on the Central line of local trains. As of 7:30 am today, trains on all corridors are running, as rains continue to batter Mumbai.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who took charge just a week ago, chaired a meeting of officials, where he asked them to remain alert and take necessary steps to ensure that there is no loss of life during the monsoon.

No relief was expected anytime soon as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a heavy rainfall alert for several parts of Maharashtra, including the financial capital, for today and tomorrow.