Heavy rain in Mumbai on Monday brought chaos as the newly opened vehicular underpass of Coastal Road was flooded with rainwater, remaining closed since morning, due to which traffic was disrupted in south Mumbai. The heavy rains, which continued overnight, affected road, rail and flight traffic on September 15.
The underpass below the existing Abdul Gaffar Khan Road connects JK Kapoor Chowk—handling traffic from Prabhadevi and Dadar—to the Mumbai Coastal Road. After the cut-and-cover portion of the VUP, traffic splits into two directions: one towards Bandra and the other onto the southbound Coastal Road.
Low-lying areas in the city are waterlogged with rainwater, forcing the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to issue a 'red alert' at 8.30 am, expecting heavy to very heavy rainfall in the city and neighbouring districts of Maharashtra. But later in the afternoon, IMD revised its alert it to an 'orange alert' as the rain intensity reduced.
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Waterlogging was reported at major junctions, including in Dadar, Kurla and Bandra railway stations. Mumbai local trains in Western, Central and Harbour lines were running 10 to 15 minutes behind schedule due to low visibility and precautionary speed.
Spokespersons of the Western Railway and the Central Railway, however, said their suburban services were running normally, despite continuous rainfall since last night. The heavy downpour, which began around midnight with lightning and thunder, continued in the morning, leading to inundation of low-lying areas like King's Circle, Lalbaug, Worli, Dadar, Parel, Kurla and other areas.
For the next 24 hours, the IMD has predicted ''cloudy sky with heavy to very heavy rain'' at isolated places in the city and suburbs with a possibility of thunder and lightning, besides gusty winds at a speed of 30-40 kmph. The weather department has also issued an 'orange alert' for Palghar, Pune, Ahilyanagar and Beed districts, forecasting heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places.