Rains wreak havoc: 72 structures collapse, 41 trees uprooted, 1 dead in treefall

THANE: Heavy rains continued to lash the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) on Wednesday, claiming one life: that of 27-year-old Taufiq Saudagar who died when a Gulmohar tree fell on his moving rickshaw in Thane. “Efforts to remove the fallen tree are currently underway,” said Yasin Tadvi, an officer with the Regional Disaster Management Committee.

A day earlier, on Tuesday night in Kalyan’s Chinchpada area, another Gulmohar tree fell on a moving autorickshaw amid heavy rain, killing the driver and two passengers. Both incidents raise serious concerns about urban tree maintenance and public safety, especially during the monsoon.

According to the fire department, heavy rainfall and thunderstorms in the Vasai-Virar region saw at least 41 trees being uprooted, and damaging roads and structures. Twelve tree branches fell in the city and one in the eastern suburbs. Apart from this, parts or entire structures of 72 houses collapsed. The fire brigade said there were no injuries or deaths reported in the mayhem.

In the 24 hours ending at 8.30 pm on Wednesday, Mumbai received 1.8mm rain at Santacruz weather station, which is the city’s base weather station, and 3 mm at the Colaba weather station. Wind speeds ranged between 50 and 60 kmph with thunderstorms.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) extended the yellow alert—which indicates light to moderate rains—till Thursday for Mumbai. “After this, the western disturbance in the low levels of the atmosphere is expected to subside,” said Sushma Nair, scientist, IMD.

The morning saw thunderstorms and lightning accompanied by heavy rain in Borivali and Dahisar. By evening, Prabhadevi, BKC, Santacruz, Powai, Vikhroli, Mulund, Vasai, Virar and Mumbra were drenched. Many areas, including the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road, were waterlogged.

Mumbai traffic police officers said that although the traffic was slow-moving, no jams were reported in the city. “Due to low visibility, the speed of the vehicles was slow, causing delays,” said a traffic police official. “We had increased police presence on the roads to help ensure a smooth flow of vehicular traffic.”

Heavy thunderstorms caused all flight operations to shut down for eight minutes at Mumbai’s domestic and international airports. Services on Western Railway were also disrupted for almost 30 minutes on account of a large piece of cloth that fluttered down on the overhead equipment (OHE) and cable between Churchgate and Marine Lines stations at 4.25 pm, interrupting the power supply.

By the time this was rectified, a tree branch fell on the OHE cable at Mahalaxmi. This too took 20 to 25 minutes to remove. The repercussions were felt during the evening peak hours when trains towards Borivali and Virar ran at delays of 10 to 12 minutes.

Several places in the city were waterlogged. ‘Due to the construction works on the Poisar river bridge in Kandivali, there was water logging in several societies around. We request the BMC to clean the Poisar,’ said @drprincemishra.

According to BMC data, the city recorded 14 mm of rainfall in the vicinity of its C Ward office, and 12 mm near its headquarters, Nariman Point and Memonwada in Masjid Bunder. Eighteen mm was recorded in the eastern suburbs on Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg and T Ward office and ranged between 20mm to 24mm in other isolated areas of the eastern suburbs. In the western suburbs, the BKC fire station recorded 22mm, Aarey Colony 20mm and Versova 18mm.

(With inputs from Shashank Rao and Megha Sood)