Mumbai: Heavy, incessant rains since Saturday threw normal life out of gear as many parts of the city experienced flooding and transport services became erratic.
A landslide this morning in Tardeo, opposite the famous Haji Ali dargah, killed one and injured four men, all workers, of a building on Madan Mohan Malviya Road, where repair works were being carried out, a fire brigade official said.
The injured have been admitted to various hospitals. Incessant rains also caused landslides in Parsik Hills in the neighbouring Thane district killing two persons. Slum-dwellers living near the hills have been evacuated.
The Mumbai Fire Brigade also rescued 33 people trapped by flood waters in a resort at Manor, near the highway at Palghar, on the outskirts of the city.
Whilst the meteorological department cautioned fishermen from venturing out to the sea for the next 24 hours, another day of heavy showers was forecast for Tuesday by weathermen for the city and its suburbs.
The Central Railway and Harbour Line were badly hit in the morning during rush hour due to water logging on the tracks but "trains are now running normal," said a railway spokesman.
However, long distance trains to Chennai, Mangalore, Nagpur and Ferozpur were rescheduled due to heavy rains. Several trains were also rescheduled on the Konkan Railway, which normally gets affected during heavy rains since landslides are common in this hilly terrain.
Water-logging was reported in many areas of the city, particularly Milan Subway in Santacruz which gets flooded every monsoon making travel from eastern to western suburbs miserable.
Several other subways were also flooded hitting flow of traffic. Other low-lying areas as Parel, Lower Parel, Dadar, King's Circle, Sion and Andheri also experienced flooding. Most of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Schools were closed whilst others shut down early or attendance was generally low.
"Fortunately, at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, visibility was normal but all flights were delayed by ten minutes," said Anandita Sinha, spokesperson of Mumbai International Airport Ltd. "Due to closure of Kochi airport, two arrivals and four departures of that sector had been cancelled."
She said flights to Kochi resumed by evening.
