Mumbai rains: School, colleges closed, rail and road traffic hit

Heavy rains battered Mumbai and its neighbouring areas on Monday throwing life out of gear and forcing authorities to shut down schools and colleges in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

The India Meteorological Department has forecast continuous rain with heavy to very rain at a few places and extremely heavy rains at one or two places in Mumbai and suburbs for rest of Monday and Tuesday. South Mumbai received 51.4mm of rain in three hours between 8.30am and 11.30am and the suburbs 39.6mm.

“Precautionary holiday declared for schools, colleges in Mumbai Metropolitan Region for the safety of the students due to the heavy rainfall experienced in the city and the suburban areas. Heavy rains forecasted, every one is advised to stay safe,” the state’s education minister Vinod Tawde tweeted, after 11.30am on Monday after a large number of schools were already in session or had declared a holiday on their own. In response to his tweet, many schools have started informing parents and closing early.

Many trains in the heavily-used suburban network were stopped and several were running late as rainwater inundated the railway tracks.

Traffic was also redirected after waterlogging was reported at several places in Mumbai, including Andheri Subway, Hindamata, Mulund Station, King Circle (Gandhi Market), Sion, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus and Matunga.

Due to flooding at Kings Circle, the north-bound road from Maheshwari Udyan to Sion Hospital was closed and traffic diverted through Bhaudaji Road and southbound through the flyover. Andheri Subway has also been closed and traffic has been diverted through SV Road.

Operation of private and chartered aircraft and helicopters at Juhu aerodrome was suspended till 3pm due to the bad weather.