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Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai

Mumbai, Aug 5 (PTI): Incessant rains since the wee hours today threw normal life out of gear in Mumbai and adjoining areas with the Central Railway's suburban services disrupted due to waterlogging of tracks at some places.

A high tide is forecast later in the day and heavy to very heavy rains are likely to lash Konkan and Central Maharashtra regions in the next 24 to 48 hours.

"The suburban services on Up and Down slow lines have been suspended between Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and Thane due to waterlogging at Sion, Masjid and Sandhurst Road stations because of continuous heavy rain," a Central Railway spokesman said.

"The main area of waterlogging was reported near Sion station where tracks were submerged upto 5-7 inches and to avoid any untoward incident, the train operations were halted between CST and Thane stations," he said.

The train services came to a halt at around 11.30 AM and the operations resumed at 12.05 PM, he said.

The spokesman also said that motormen have been instructed to move at restricted speed owing to waterlogging of the tracks.

Since the train services have been hampered, the suburban passengers have been permitted to board long distance trains between CST and Kalyan stretch, CR PRO A K Singh said.

BMC's Deputy Municipal Commissioner (GAD) Sudhir Naik said since this morning over 100 mm rain has been reported so far. Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta was monitoring the situation in view of the heavy downpour.

"There were reports of waterlogging at Hindmata and Gandhi Market in Sion, but pumps were in operation to flush out the water from there," he said.

The trains on the Central Line were running late by 30 to 40 minutes while on the Western Line, the suburban trains were delayed by 10 to 20 minutes, he said.

An official from IMD, Mumbai region, said, "There could be heavy to very heavy rains in Konkan region in coming 48 hours while central Maharashtra region can witness heavy to very heavy rain in next 24 hours".

During the last 24 hours, several areas in the state received heavy rains - Mahabaleshwar (159.6 mm), Radhanagari in Kolhapur (128.0) mm, Poladpur in Raigad (84mm), Matheran (72mm), Ratnagiri (71.8 mm) and Harnai weather station recorded 81.7 mm rainfall.