by Rons Bantwal
Daijiworld Media Network

MUMBAI, Jul 24 (PTI): Heavy rains lashed Mumbai on Wednesday, choking the city with traffic jams due to flooded streets. Normal life has been thrown out of gear due to heavy rain for the second day on Wednesday.

Train services on city's Central and Harbour line are running late by over 20 minutes.

According to the Indian Meteorological Department, the tide levels are going to be 4.95-metre high at 1:27pm today. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has advised people to stay indoor and to move out of their houses only if necessary.

According to latest reports, it has stopped raining in some areas of the city.

A nearly one km-long stretch of Mumbra bypass on the outskirts of Thane caved in this morning due to incessant rains and has been closed for vehicular traffic, police said.

"Due to heavy rains, around one km-long stretch of the Mumbra bypass has developed huge craters and has been badly damaged. As a precautionary measure, the traffic on either side of the road has been diverted," a police officer said.

However, the closure of the bypass has led to traffic snarls in the internal parts of the city.

The Mumbra bypass on the National Highway 4 (Mumbai-Pune highway) is a crucial link to traffic from Delhi-Ahmedabad-Mumbai (NH3) and Agra-Nashik-Mumbai (NH8) going towards Panvel, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), Pune and beyond, and is mostly used by heavy vehicles.

On Tuesday, Mumbai was once again soaked and waterlogged as incessant rains coincided with high tide. The city may not get a respite from the wet spell any time soon as the meteorological department has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall over the next 60 hours.

Till 8.30pm on Tuesday, Colaba had recorded 84.6mm of rainfall whereas Santa Cruz got 142.2mm. Other areas in the city that received heavier rainfall in 12 hours included Bhan-dup; it topped the list at 151.7mm. Wadala at 140.2 mm, Kurla 133.9mm, Dadar 132.9mm and Bandra 132.6mm followed closely.

The average rainfall received by the island city was 96mm in the 12-hour period. The eastern suburbs recorded 108mm whereas western suburbs received 88mm in the same period. What added to the woes as tide as high as 4.88 metres at 12:48pm, which led to waterlogging.

Mumbai has already seen about 11 days of heavy to very heavy rainfall this season.

According to the Indian Meteorological Department, multiple climatic conditions have been contributing to the current spell of downpour. "In the past four days, there have been very strong pressure gradients over the west coast," said V K Rajeev, director of weather forecast at IMD, Mumbai.