Rain battered Mumbai crawls back to normalcy (Lead)

Mumbai limped back to normalcy as heavy rains receded Wednesday afternoon, after having battered India's financial capital for almost three days causing waterlogging in many areas, traffic snarls and affecting rail services.

In the evening the city's lifeline, the suburban railways network, functioned almost as usual but the Eastern Express Highway and Western Expressway and other major roads were tangled in traffic jams as office-goers anxiously attempted to rush home in suburbs, some of which remained waterlogged for over 48 hours.

Normalcy also returned to services on the long-distance sectors of Central Railway (CR), which had suffered delays after a portion of the railway tracks was washed out at Waingani, around 100 km from Mumbai.

A railway spokesman said the portion was repaired and services resumed after 1 p.m.

Air services were functioning per schedule later in the day though many flights were delayed by 15 minutes in the morning, a Mumbai airport spokesman said.

Some low-lying areas of the city and suburbs like Sion, Matunga, Kurla, Mahim, Kalina, the posh Juhu, Vile Parle where Bollywood bigiwigs live, and Andheri continued to be waterlogged.

All the subways at Khar, Santacruz, Andheri, Malad, Kandivli and Dahisar, which were flooded since Tuesday, were used by motorists since Wednesday afternoon.

According to official figures released by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) in the evening, south Mumbai received 8.9 mm rains, the eastern suburbs 15.5 mm and the western suburbs 18 mm rain during the day till evening.

The heavy rains in the past three days have cheered up the authorities and people alike as the water levels have improved in the six lakes that supply drinking water to Mumbai.

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

The rains have wiped out the season's rain deficit in the suburbs and are close to achieving the normalcy mark in the city.

While the suburbs received excess rains of 187 mm till Wednesday morning, the city at 55 mm is close to achieving its normal quota.

The forecast for the next two days till Friday is heavy to very heavy rains in Mumbai and surrounding areas, the Weather Bureau said.

Last updated on Jul 15^th, 2009 at 20:53 pm IST--IANS