July 3, 2019
Mumbai received 375 mm of rainfall on Monday, making it the maximum July downpour that the city has seen over a 24-hour period, breaking the record of 1974.
As incessant rains lashed Mumbai for the fifth day, two men were drowned after their car got stuck in a heavily waterlogged underpass in Malad on Monday night. The two have been identified as 37-year-old Irfan Khan and 38-year-old Gulshad Shaikh.
The two apparently failed to gauge the depth of water in the heavily waterlogged underpass. As water entered the engine of their car, the automatic doors got jammed and they could not get out.
Mumbai has received record rainfall and life remain paralysed on Tuesday as most of the roads got clogged and local train services virtually coming to a standstill.
Flight operations at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport were also hit severely due to heavy rains and the overshooting of a SpiceJet aircraft while landing.
The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has declared a holiday for all schools and colleges and the state government expanded it to other parts of the coastal Konkan region.
Mumbai received 375 mm of rainfall on Monday, making it the maximum July downpour that the city has seen over a 24-hour period, breaking the record of 1974.
“In the past 12 hours, the city has received an unprecedented 300 to 400 mm rain, the highest in the past decade. The existing drainage systems are unable to cope with such a heavy downpour, coupled with a high tide this afternoon,” Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told media persons.
The Indian Navy deployed rubber boats and a team of naval divers from INS Tanaji, armed with lifebouys, life-jackets and food packets, rescued around 1,000 people stranded in Kranti Nagar slums of Kurla.
The IMD has forecast more rains till Friday.
At least 23 people are reportedly dead in rain-related incidents in Mumbai and Pune after intense rains continue to lash the state for the fifth day.
At least 18 persons were killed and several others injured in a Malad suburb a little after midnight on Tuesday as the compound wall of a school collapsed on some adjoining hutments.
Meanwhile, at least three people were killed and one injured in a wall collapse incident early on Tuesday in Kalyan near Mumbai’s Thane district. The wall of National Urdu School, opposite Durgadi Fort in Kalyan (West), fell on the nearby hutments killing two women and a three-year-old boy. The fire department and the police carried out rescue operations and cleared the debris.
In Pune, the compound wall of the Sinhagad College crashed on some hutments killing at least seven persons. In all the incidents, the police officials fear that there may be more people trapped under the debris.