Mumbai and its adjoining areas were lashed by heavy showers on Tuesday, causing water-logging at a number of places, including railway tracks, which slowed the movement of trains and vehicles on roads.
heavy showers were likely to continue for next 48 hours, according to the India Meteorological Department.
At least four gelatin sticks were on Thursday found on the railway tracks near Taloja in Navi Mumbai, a day after a discarded overhead equipment was spotted lying on the rail lines in Raigad
"Does one need bullet train or improvement of basic rail infrastructure," the MNS chief said.
Afsar Dayatar/Rediff.com captured these images as the City That Never Sleeps took to the trains with gusto.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com meets the families of the victims of the stampede at Mumbai's Elphinstone railway station.
Incessant showers lashed Mumbai and its neighbouring areas on Wednesday morning, leading to flooding in many low-lying areas and traffic snarls on roads.
The prime minister thanked the people but said it was the start of a long battle, as he urged them to follow social distancing to stop the chain of transmission of Coronavirus which has infected 360 people and claimed seven lives in India.
Barring stray incidents of violence like stone pelting, the shutdown called by the MVA allies Shiv Sena, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party was largely peaceful.
Heavy rains since Monday night and subsequent waterlogging at five vulnerable spots, failure of Mandovi Express engine at Dadar station, passengers' outcry at Diva station and a landslide caution near Parsik tunnel near Mumbra severely affected the suburban train operations of Central Railway on Tuesday morning, a senior railway official said.
The Indian Meteorological Department, meanwhile, warned of intense spell of 30 to 50 mm rainfall per hour with strong winds in Mumbai and suburban areas.
Mumbai has been witnessing heavy rains since Wednesday.
One meal at a time, Vision Rescue's Biju Thampy hopes to turn around the destiny of street kids in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
Some low-lying places like Hindmata, and areas in Dadar and Sion, including the Gandhi Market and road number 24 in Sion, were inundated, forcing pedestrians to wade through the water and making it difficult for motorists to commute.
The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,752 and the number of cases climbed to 85,940 on Saturday.
'The virus is constantly, constantly making mistakes when it replicates.' 'When the virus has accumulated enough mistakes, then it becomes now a variant and it behaves differently.'
Here's what's buzzing in Mumbai if you are looking out for real estate appreciation...
Life in Mumbai was on Wednesday slowly coming back on tracks as rains subsided and hundreds of stranded commuters headed home with the partial resumption of suburban train services.
Rediff.com captures the mood among the people at Elphinstine Road railway station, a week after 23 people died in a stampede at a footover bridge.
Researchers have found two new mutations in coronavirus samples from Amravati and Yavatmal districts of eastern Maharashtra which can escape neutralising antibodies, a senior official said on Thrusday. Meanwhile, authorities in the two districts have announced strict implementation of restrictions, including a weekend lockdown in Amravati, to stem the rising cases of COVID-19.
'It is absolutely important for us to continue to message to people that they must wear masks, keep physical distancing, as much as is practically possible, at work or at home.'
The data gaps are inhibiting sound decisions. We need to know seroprevalence, infection, and vaccination rates. This is required in 200 cities of India, every week, suggests Ajay Shah.
A day after heavy showers battered Mumbai, the rain intensity reduced briefly on Monday morning and picked up momentum again, leading to water-logging at some places and disrupting local train services, officials said.
'If your oxygen saturation is okay and is maintained after the six-minute walk test -- which has been described all over the world -- and you do not have an unrelenting fever, then you can even be managed at home.'
A first person account of the train-walk-bike-taxi journey on Wednesday to the office, which is usually covered in an hour, took five-long but enlightening hours, as the city observed a bandh called against violence on the anniversary of a battle fought 200 years ago.
'If people are not cooperating and do not follow policies laid down by the government or follow scientific infection control management, then all will be lost.'
The shutdown generated tension in Mumbai and a number of towns and cities across Maharashtra.
'We know, from our experience of this virus, that there's something known as long COVID-19, where you have this persistent fatigue and some people have lost their neurological acuteness and they are not as sharp as they used to be.'
Deepak Amrapurkar, the Bombay Hospital gastroenterologist had slipped into an open manhole while wading through the water-logged streets near Elphinstone Road station.
Of the 146 deaths reported since Monday morning, 60 were in Maharashtra, 30 in Gujarat, 15 in Delhi, 10 in Madhya Pradesh, seven in Tamil Nadu, six in West Bengal, four each in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, three in Telangana, two each in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka and one in Kerala.
The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 61,149, while 42,297 people have recovered and one patient has migrated.
It is the highest rainfall of the season so far in 24 hours.
Mumbai recorded over 250 mm of rain in just three hours (between midnight and 3 am), touching 305 mm by 7 am on Sunday, a meteorologist said.
In this lockdown, no matter how many similarities the memory dredges up from past events and associations, there is one thing that has no precedent: The isolation that it has imposed on people, reports Arundhuti Dasgupta.
The weather department on Wednesday issued a rain 'red alert' warning for Mumbai and adjoining areas and asked the authorities to be prepared to handle any situation.
Divya Nair spent eight hours getting home September 4. Thankfully she reached safe. And was able to appreciate the human side of her journey. Her story is not any more unusual than that of so many other city residents last Wednesday. But why should anyone have to spend eight hours getting home on an average rainy day in Mumbai? Why?
Mumbai, India's financial capital, is set for a mega transformation with a massive patch of land opening up for redevelopment; a new metro railway ready to start services by the year-end; and the country's oldest railway station, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, going for modernisation with private sector participation. Work on Mumbai's second airport will start from next month, while construction of the sea link connecting central Mumbai to Navi Mumbai has already moved into a fast lane despite Covid-induced lockdowns. Also, a coastal road project, connecting Nariman Point to Worli, is under way and will help decongest the city to quite an extent. Of all these mega infrastructure projects, the one that has a huge potential to change the city's skyline is the Eastern Waterfront project - to be built on the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) land.
The Maharashtra government has directed all schools and colleges in the city and neighbouring Thane district to remain closed on Saturday.
Private weather agency Skymet said Mumbai is at 'serious risk of flooding' between July 3 and 5.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances