Mumbai battles heavy downpour, train services on Harbour line disrupted

Mumbai: Intermittent rains continued for the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday in Mumbai and suburbs, disrupting local train services on the Central Railway's Harbour Line for sometime on Wednesday morning, an official said.

Besides, a couple got trapped when a tree fell on their car following heavy rains in the city on Tuesday night while a man was rescued from the rough sea waters at Colaba in the early hours on Wednesday, police said

The continuous showers led to deposition of mud on tracks between Mankhurd and Gowandi suburban stations which led to the suspension of train services for about half-an-hour on the Harbour Line, that stretches between Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and Panvel in adjoining Raigad district, Central Railway's senior PRO A K Jain said.

"A significant amount of mud was spotted on the tracks between Mankhurd and Gowandi stations at 8.20 am today and it was decided to halt the train services," he said.

"Our team swung into action to remove the mud and the tracks were cleared by around 8.54 am," Jain said, adding that eight to 10 train services were affected during that time.

The services were later resumed with a speed restriction because of which the trains were running behind schedule, he said.

Jain said the services on the Central Railway's main line, running from CST to Kalyan and onwards to Kasara and Khopoli, were smooth but because of the heavy downpour, the trains were running 10-15 minutes behind schedule.

He said no water-logging was reported at any of the suburban stations on the main line.

According to an official of the Mumbai civic body's disaster management department, the Colaba observatory recorded 63 mm rainfall and Santacruz 51.1 mm in the last 24 hours.

"There has been no major impact on the road traffic movement in the city and on the Western Railway services," he said.

An alert has been issued of a 4.6 metres high tide at 3.23 pm on Wednesday, the official said.

Heavy rains are likely to continue till Friday in the entire north Konkan region, including Mumbai, he said.

According the Mumbai police spokesperson Rashmi Karandikar said, "At around 8.05 pm yesterday, a big tree fell on three cars on N M Joshi Marg. A couple trapped in one of the cars was rescued. The fire brigade team removed the tree from the road and traffic movement was restored."

Besides, a resident of suburban Wadala got trapped in the waves amid the choppy sea waters near Radio Club in Colaba. He was rescued at around 2.30 am on Wednesday, she said.