Brought to knees by rains, Mumbai getting back to its feet

Life in Mumbai was on Wednesday slowly coming back on tracks as rains subsided and hundreds of stranded commuters headed home with the partial resumption of suburban train services, a day after heavy showers brought the city to a halt and left four persons dead.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the intensity of rains over the Mumbai region on Wednesday is expected to be slightly lower than what it was on Tuesday. However, some isolated areas are likely to receive heavy rainfall, it warned. Suburban train services, the city’s lifeline depended upon by over 6.5 million commuters partially resumed this morning on all the three lines – Western, Central and Harbour. On the Central Railway’s Harbour and Main lines, local services were running very slow and getting held up at stations as tracks remain submerged at various points. Road traffic, which remained paralysed on Tuesday due to water-logging and high tide, was also back to normal. However, the Maharashtra government offices and educational institutions in the city and adjoining areas remained closed, as declared by the state administration as a precautionary measure last evening. No substantial rainfall has been reported from any part of the city or outskirts and the morning was bright and skies looked less cloudy.
The Navy has stepped in to provide succour to commuters stranded in the rains by opening community kitchens and food counters at various locations in the megapolis. However, Mumbai’s famed ‘dabbawalas’ on Wednesday cancelled their delivery of over two lakh tiffins to office goers in the city in view of the disruption of suburban rail services. Torrential rain, accompanied by strong winds, pummelled Mumbai on Tuesday, disrupting rail, road and air services, uprooting trees, swamping homes, and bringing the megapolis and satellite towns to their knees. Hundreds of commuters, who were stranded since last evening in various suburban and terminus railway stations, started heading homes as local train services resumed. The megapolis received 316 mm rain on Tuesday, which was the heaviest after the July 26, 2005 record of 944 mm, which caused the worst havoc in decades in the financial hub of the country. Navy helicopters, divers and NDRF teams were kept on standby last evening. Three persons, including two children, were on Tuesday killed in separate house collapses in suburban Vikhroli, police had said. In adjoining Thane, a 32-year-old woman and a teenage girl died while two others were injured in rain-related incidents, civic officials had said. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), ruled by the Shiv Sena, had come under fire from various quarters, including commentators and cultural personalities for shoddy infrastructure and preparedness to meet eventualities. However, the Sena sought to defend the civic body, saying its machinery had been geared up to meet the situation and no major untoward incident was reported.