Mumbai: Incessant heavy rain since late Wednesday night caused waterlogging at several places in Mumbai and threw life in the city out of gear.
However, latest reports say water has begun receding in some parts of the city. The Mithi river, which was overflowing, has now slipped below the danger mark. The silver lining is that the drying reservoirs, the main source of water in the city, are now in much better shape.
The downpour badly disrupted road, rail and air traffic. People stranded on roads said many of the routes to the Mumbai airport were jammed. Vile Parle, they said was flooded. "It has taken us an hour to inch forward a kilometre," said one.
The airport management said there were several flight delays but there was no real visibility problem and no waterlogging of the runway. The biggest issue was for passengers to get to the airport.
Earlier, rain accompanied by gusty winds since Monday evening led to traffic snarls at various places. Suburban trains were also running late by 30-45 minutes due to waterlogging on the tracks.
Central railways was running 30 to 45 minutes late while Harbour line and Western lines are running 10 to 15 minutes, the railways said.
Several low lying areas including King's circle, Sion, Andheri Milan subway, Hind Mata were inundated and traffic police said the movement on western and eastern highways were affected badly.
According to Mumbai International Airport Limited, visibility at the airport has been reduced to 800 ft. Incoming flights were delayed by 15 minutes while the departure of the flights was more or less on time.
The rainfall recorded till 5.30 am was 93.4 mm at Colaba in south Mumbai and 125.6 mm at Santa Cruz in western suburbs.
Water logging was also reported at Wadala truck terminus, Maratha Mandir, Khar-Andheri subways, Deonar colonies and some parts of Govandi. Several trees were also uprooted due to strong winds in the city.
The weather bureau said frequent spells of heavy to very heavy rain with strong winds will continue.