Rains in Mumbai after dry spell, suburban services hit

MUMBAI: Light to heavy rains after nearly a month-long dry spell brought relief from the sultry weather conditions even as suburban train services on western and central lines were hit today due to the water-logging in some parts following incessant showers.

Some express trains of Western Railway were cancelled due to water-logging while local train services of Central Railway were suspended for a short while 10 between Kurla and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) after tracks got submerged between Sion and Kurla.

In the Palghar district adjoining neighbouring Thane, schools were shut today due to heavy rains since last evening, officials said.

During the last 24 hours, Colaba in south Mumbai received 15.8 mm rainfall while Santacruz weather station recorded 61 mm downpour.

"We are having good to very good clouding at the offshores and expect good rainfall in next 48 hours," IMD Mumbai centre's director V K Rajiv said.

The heavy rains affected the suburban train operations since morning.

Due to heavy rains and breaches between Palghar and Boisar, five express trains of Western Railway scheduled to leave Mumbai this morning were cancelled.

A 'point failure' reported at Bandra station resulted in cancellation of some local train services on the Western line and halting of services on two tracks. The trains were running late 15 to 20 minutes on the western line.

"Efforts are on to restore the services," senior PRO Western Railway Gajanan Mahatpurkar said.

The cancelled trains are Ahmedabad Express, Bandra-Surat Inter-city Express, Mumbai Central-Ahmedabad Shatabdi Express, Mumbai Central-Porbundar Express and Bandra Terminus-Vapi passenger train.

Meanwhile, suburban trains services were suspended for nearly 10 minutes at around 10.15 AM between Kurla and CST after tracks submerged between Sion and Kurla, according to a statement by the Central Railway.

The CR's suburban services were also hit due to the heavy rains and running 15 to 20 minutes late.

"There has been no cancellation of Express trains on account of rains. However, our suburban services are running late by 15 to 20 minutes," Central Railway PRO A K Singh said.

"There have been reports of water-logging on tracks near Kurla, Sion, Thane that have slowed down the speed of suburban trains," another official said.

According to BMC's disaster management control room, there was traffic jam on Western Express Highway and few BEST buses were diverted on some routes, including at Chembur and Matunga.