‘Orange’ and ‘Yellow’ alerts have been issued by the IMD for Mumbai today and Thursday, respectively. Wednesday saw the issuance of a “red” alert by the national weather service for Palghar, Raigad, Pune, and Satara and a “orange” alert for Thane, Mumbai, and Ratnagiri.
In light of the warning for heavy rain in the city, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde ordered the closure of all schools in Mumbai on Wednesday. Over the past two days, there has been a lot of rain in Mumbai and the surrounding areas. Mumbai’s local train services and vehicular traffic have both been hampered by the rain.
The IMD stated in its daily weather bulletin that on July 19, there is a chance of isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall over the Konkan, Goa, central Maharashtra, and Gujarat.
In addition to Mumbai, Sanjay Meena, the district collector for Gadchiroli, has also ordered a holiday for tomorrow, July 20, for all district schools and colleges due to heavy rain.
The Maharashtra Chief Minister earlier today ordered that government offices in Mumbai and the surrounding region close early to give staff members more time to get home as heavy rains disrupted local train services and traffic. On Wednesday, train service on the Kalyan-Kasara section close to Mumbai was suspended due to heavy rain.
A few mail and express trains were diverted by the Central Railway via the Diva-Panvel-Karjat and Daund-Manmad routes, and a few trains between Mumbai and Pune were also terminated early or were cancelled. On Wednesday, there was significant rainfall in the Thane district, which is adjacent to Mumbai. Around 2.40 pm, train service on the Kalyan-Kasara section was halted due to a point failure.
Since 11 am, the submerged tracks between Ambarnath and Badlapur stations in Thane have been a problem for the suburban services between Kalyan and Khopoli (in Raigad). The official had earlier stated that the “Badlapur-Ambarnath section (UP + DOWN) closed from 11.05 hrs for traffic due to water-logging.”
The Central Railway runs local train services on its Main Line from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in south Mumbai to Kasara in Thane and Khopoli in Raigad district. It also runs suburban services on the Harbour Line from CSMT to Panvel (Raigad) and Goregaon (Mumbai), which were affected by a “point failure” at Panvel at 9.40 am and were restored by 10 am.
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