Heavy rains lash Mumbai, life thrown out of gear

Heavy rains lashed many parts of Mumbai on Friday, throwing normal life completely out of gear.

Mumbai, Aug.3 : Heavy rains lashed many parts of Mumbai on Friday, throwing normal life completely out of gear.

Waterlogged streets and traffic snarls in King Circle, Matunga Circle, Hindmata Junction, Panduang Budhkar Marg, Worli Naka, Haji Ali Junction, Peddar Road left commuters at their wits end about how to get back home or to their places of work.

Kurla, Sion, Dadar, Andheri, Santa Cruz, Chembur and Thane have been badly affected due to the waterlogging.

Railway tracks are also submerged in the country's financial capital, throwing train services out of their routine schedules. Trains on the Western line were running 10 mins late, whereas trains plying on the Central Line were running about 30 mins late.

About 82.6 mm of rain has been recorded in Santa Cruz, while Colaba has received 104.2 mm of rain already. Flights too were delayed.

Important link roads like S V Road and Linking Road were clear.

The met department has said that there could be heavy to very heavy rain and gusty winds over the next 24 hours.

With over 20 people drowned or killed in house collapses in two states -- Bihar and Uttar Pradesh --, the countrywide rain-related death toll rose to 145 as an estimated 19 million people were stranded or displaced in floods over the past fortnight.

Floods in Bihar worsened Friday as 14 people were swept away by swirling rivers in the worst-hit districts of Darbhanga, Beghusarai, Madhubani and Champaran.

Thousands of stranded villagers waited for rescue operations to start amidst a crisis of essential commodities and food.

State flood-control officials said water levels were rising in all major rivers and nearly 16 districts were submerged affecting over nine million people.

Soldiers have begun to evacuate people from hundreds of inundated villages in Uttar Pradesh.

State officials said seven people died in house collapses overnight after rains and floods submerged 5,000 villages in the state's eastern districts.

Teams of doctors and paramedics were visiting regions in the state to supply medicines and control the outbreak of waterborne diseases.

The flood situation in Assam marginally improved with the main Brahmaputra River and its tributaries subsiding as rains eased. Over 5.5 million people were displaced in the latest wave of flooding in the state.

According to local news outlets, a total of 870 people have been killed in incidents of drowning, landslides, house collapses or electrocution across India since the onset of the monsoon season.

The monsoon season in India usually lasts from June until September and exacts a heavy toll, both in terms of human lives and destruction of agricultural crops and property. (ANI with inputs)

ANI