September 8th 2023.
Mumbai and the MMR region welcomed a much-needed rainfall after a month-long dry spell, with heavy showers sweeping the area in less than 10 hours. The Indian Meteorological Department issued a yellow alert on Thursday for Mumbai, Thane and Palghar region, later upgrading it to an orange alert, which indicates heavy to very heavy rain in the area.
The Colaba area was hit with 50.01mm rainfall, with Santacruz region receiving 111.1mm. The IMD predicted that the weather will remain cloudy with medium to heavy rainfall in the next few days. Mahesh Palawat, the vice president of Skymet weather service, said, "Rainfall will decrease from September 10 onwards. For the next 48 hours, light and moderate spells will be present in the catchment area. After that, the intensity of rain will start to decrease. Mumbai will experience light and moderate rain in the upcoming days. The withdrawal of rain will start from 17-18 September."
In addition to the rains, 16 treefall incidents were reported in Mumbai, with seven in the city, two in the suburbs and seven in the western suburbs. Five incidents of house and wall collapse, three incidents of electrocution and one incident of landslide were also noticed. The heaviest hit was Andheri, where three cows died due to electrocution near a petrol pump on Sahar Road. Waterlogging in the Andheri subway was also reported, but BMC was able to bring the water levels back to normal with their dewatering pumps in a few hours.
The rains have added 3% to the water stock in Mumbai's reservoirs, with 13,48,449 million litres of water now available for the next 350 days.
The roads of Mumbai were also affected by the rains, with no major updates from the Mumbai Traffic Police except for a 'heavy traffic' congestion reported on the Western Express Highway at around 7:30 pm. Commuters reported long traffic jams, with a 3 km stretch from BKC junction to Tilak Nagar taking 33 minutes to travel. The Mith Chowky signal in Malad West was the worst hit, with a jam of two hours reported. The WEH was jammed throughout the day, with a massive crane stuck on the road near Oberoi Mall causing disturbances. Traffic from Sahar Road to the Airport and Andheri-Kurla road was also affected, as well as the Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road, Jacob Circle and Eastern Freeway.
The heavy rains have been a blessing to Mumbai, with the city's water reservoirs rejoicing with a 3% boost in levels in just 24 hours. With lighter rains expected in the coming days, the city can hope for a more manageable traffic situation.
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