Heavy rains in India’s Mumbai impact transport, shut schools
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People walking in a waterlogged subway after heavy rain in Mumbai, India.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MUMBAI - Heavy rain flooded roads and railways on July 8 in India’s financial capital of Mumbai, disrupting flights and forcing the closure of some schools and colleges, while overflowing rivers elsewhere affected more than two million people.
Just ahead of the morning rush hour, more than 300mm of rain lashed the city of 12 million over six hours until 7am (9.30am Singapore time), civic officials said in a statement.
With forecasts of more heavy showers and a high tide of 4.4m in the coastal city, school and colleges shut for the day as a precaution, the authorities added.
“There is heavy traffic on the roads and rail lines too have been affected,” Mr Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra, the western state whose capital is Mumbai, said on social media platform X, urging people to stay indoors unless necessary.
Commuters waded through knee-deep water that partially submerged vehicles in many areas, as traffic piled up on the city’s Eastern and Western Express highways.
Water on the tracks forced railway authorities to cancel some long-distance trains, they said, while television images showed some suburban passenger trains, a critical means of daily transport for millions, halted on inundated lines.
“Mumbai and rain-induced flooding is an annual occurrence. My BMW car is stuck in the floodwater,” Mr Anil Bore told ANI news agency, in which Reuters has a minority stake.
Widespread flooding
India’s seasonal monsoon rains, which start at the end of May, bring respite after a scorching summer but have also triggered widespread flooding in recent years.
In Bihar state in the east, separate cases of lightning strikes killed 12 people, taking the toll from such incidents to 20 since the start of July, a state government official said.
The rain, coupled with low visibility, prompted the airport authorities to suspend runway operations for more than an hour from 2.22am, airport sources said.
More than 300 flights were delayed and at least 36 cancelled, the website of tracking service Flightradar24 showed.
India’s biggest airline, low-cost carrier IndiGo, said on X its Mumbai flights were affected by the heavy rain, while another budget airline, SpiceJet, also warned of disruptions due to bad weather.
The heavy downpour came days after record-breaking showers in the capital, New Delhi, that caused the fatal collapse of an airport roof
Torrential monsoon rain has triggered floods and landslides in India’s north and east, as well as in the neighbouring Himalayan nation of Nepal
More than two million people have been affected by rivers flooding in north-eastern Assam, where Kaziranga National Park, home to the rare one-horned rhinoceros, was inundated with six of the animals drowned, the authorities said on July 7.
The state authorities said 66 people have died in floods and rain related incidents since May.
Flooding has also affected 31 villages in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh on the Nepal border, the state government said.
With heavy rain forecast in coming days, the situation could deteriorate, officials added.
“We’re definitely seeing more rain this year. It’s making it tough for people, especially in low-lying areas, to secure their belongings and reach shelters in time,” said Dr Liakath Ali, head of climate change programme at development agency BRAC. REUTERS
