The disaster management department said that the state government has urged the Indian Air Force to send a helicopter for air-dropping of food packets and other relief material in marooned areas.
Dealers are selling gold at a discount of Rs 175 for 10 gm.
The mercury breached the 46-degree Celsius mark in several places such as Allahabad (46.8 degrees Celsius) and Jhansi (46.2 degrees Celsius) in Uttar Pradesh; Sports Complex (46.4 degrees Celsius) in Delhi; Ganganagar (46.4 degrees Celsius) in Rajasthan; Nowgong (46.2 degrees Celsius) in Madhya Pradesh; and Maharashtra's Chandrapur (46.4 degrees Celsius).
The highest 24-hour rain record in Nagpur stood at 304 mm, which was registered on July 12, 1994.
"The death toll has gone up to 24. The search operations are still going on. However, rains have started. "Despite that, our officials, and the NDRF are engaged in search and rescue operations," Idukki District Collector H Dineshan said.
In the first major downpour of this monsoon season heavy rains lashed Mumbai since Wednesday night, disrupting vehicular and rail traffic.
Some of the stretches and areas where waterlogging was seen included Dhaula Kuan, Mathura Road, Moti Bagh, Vikas Marg, Ring Road, Rohtak Road, Sangam Vihar, Kirari and near Pragati Maidan among others.
A downturn in Indian demand could hit global gold prices.
Parts of Raigad, Ratnagiri districts in the coastal Konkan region and Kolhapur district in western Maharashtra, have been worst affected by the floods. Besides that, heavy rains have been pounding parts of Satara district.
Total area impacted across India pegged at 18.9 mn hectares.
Flood victims have been fighting for survival and living in temporary shelters nearby railway tracks with lack of food items. They are yet to get any help from the government, reports M I Khan.
The downpour also disrupted the long-distance Mumbai-bound trains.
Skymet lowered its full season monsoon forecast to 'below normal' from 'normal', while the IMD is sticking to its earlier forecast that rains in June to September of 2018 would be 'normal' at 97 per cent of the LPA with a model error of +/-5 per cent.
Disaster management authorities have warned about very heavy rainfall over the next 24 hours.
The UNICEF said an estimated 2.4 million children have been affected by the recent floods in the country.
Twenty teams of the NDRF, comprising about 900 rescue persons, have been deployed in the state.
Heavy to very heavy rains are expected in Maharashtra, Gujarat, west Madhya Pradesh and Goa in the next couple of days, the India Meteorological Department said.
Rain deficiency in eastern and western Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gangetic West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya is 20-46 per cent less than normal as of June 17.
Prices of perishable items could spike in the near term.
The optimism stems from benign fuel prices, adequate and well distributed rainfall and the recent measures announced by the government to boost liquidity at banks and NBFCs.
With continuous rains in Madhya Pradesh for over a fortnight, the state recorded 11 per cent excess rainfall this monsoon season, according to Met sources. On an average, the state received 676 mm of rainfall from June one as compared to expected the 608.9 mm, as per the weekly report from Regional Meteorological Centre.
Brent crude prices fell to $57 a barrel on Monday from $62 a barrel.
A new low pressure over south east Bay of Bengal was expected to bring more rains to Tamil Nadu, where the death toll rose to 184.
Close to half the country is experiencing deficient rains and the shortage for the figure has gone up to 16 per cent.
The Indian Meteorological Department has said that that there has been a forecast for 'heavy to very heavy' rainfall across Konkan and Goa and it includes Mumbai as well.
Heavy rains lashing Mumbai since Sunday have thrown rail, air and road traffic out of gear, with several trains and flights being cancelled. With IMD forecast of heavy rains for Tuesday, the authorities declared a holiday in the city and adjoining regions, asking people to avoid stepping out of their houses.
The Maharashtra cabinet on Wednesday expressed concern about the water shortage and the crop situation in the state due to the delayed and insufficient monsoon rains.
Isolated heavy rainfall is also very likely over north Konkan region during the same period, it said.
Over 20,000 people have been displaced with officials warning the situation could get worse.
The India Meteorological Department on Tuesday had predicted heavy rainfall for the next two days due to what it called cyclonic circulation around the maximum city.
The Central Railway has decided to operate its suburban services in Mumbai division on Sunday time table, which means it will ply fewer trains, compared to weekdays when trains are run in full capacity.
The metropolis also saw two other incidents of wall collapse amid heavy rains since Friday, injuring five persons.
'The last three decades were the era of D, where D stands for deforestation, destruction, degradation, disaster, damages, diseases, difficulties... and finally it leads to death.'
"The season averaged maximum temperatures in Himachal Pradesh, West Rajasthan, Konkan, Goa, Coastal Karnataka, Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh are likely to be higher than normal by 0.5-1.0 degree Celsius," the Met department has said in its forecast.
The well-irrigated states of Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka, western Uttar Pradesh and coastal states such as Odisha are, for the first time, feeling the effects of a poor monsoon.
A red alert has been sounded in three districts of Idukki, Thrissur and Palakkad in Kerala.
Hundreds of people have been evacuated to safer places in eastern Rajasthan after heavy rainfall over the past two days led to a flood-like situation in the region and severed road connectivity to many areas.
Airlines such as Vistara and SpiceJet warned their passengers on Twitter that due to the bad weather in Delhi, their flights might get affected.
As many as 18 people have lost their lives in rain-related incidents in parts of Uttar Pradesh where normal monsoon led to moderate to rather heavy rainfall at a few places in the past 24 hours.
