Downpour continues in Mumbai, traffic hit again

Heavy rains continued to batter India's financial capital for the third consecutive day Wednesday, causing waterlogging in many areas, traffic snarls and affecting rail services.

There were traffic jams since morning on the Eastern Express Highway and Western Expressway and other major roads and many office-goers to downtown south Mumbai were delayed.

The city's lifeline, the suburban trains, were running late, spokespersons of the Central Railway and Western Railway said.

Services on the long-distance sectors were affected after a portion of the railway tracks were washed out at Waingani, around 100 km from Mumbai on the Central Railway.

Train services on the Mumbai-Pune sector were hit since 8.30 a.m. and rail traffic was diverted via Panvel sector to and from Mumbai, a railway spokesman said.

While work on restoring the railway lines was in progress, train services were stopped between Badlapur (Thane district) to Khopoli near Lonavala.

Air services were delayed by about 15 minutes each, due to poor visibility. However, visibility improved considerably by 10 a.m., an airport spokesman said.

Waterlogging continued in some areas of the city and suburbs like Sion, Matunga, Dadar, Mahim, Santacruz, Kalina, Jogeshwari and Andheri.

Despite the myriad problems, the downpour in the past three days have led to some cheer. Water levels in the six lakes supplying water to Mumbai have gone up.

The city recorded 83 mm rainfall since Tuesday evening, while the suburbs notched 274 mm, the Weather Bureau said.

The rains have wiped out the season's rain deficit in the suburbs and are close to doing the same in the city.

While the suburbs received 187 mm of excess rain till Wednesday morning, the city is still at 55 mm short.

Weather officials have forecast heavy to very heavy rains in Mumbai and surrounding areas in the next two days as well.

Last updated on Jul 15^th, 2009 at 12:51 pm IST--IANS