Mumbai continued to stay on its guard on Tuesday as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an orange alert cautioning against heavy rains and strong winds across the city. As a precaution, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started closure of all its government, private or civic-run schools or colleges to ensure the safety of students.
The sunrise welcomed the residents to cloudy skies with a windy weather, but the amount of rain was comparatively lighter than the previous two days which paralysed the entire city. While this made for a brief respite, the authorities warned people to not take any unnecessary steps to travel and to be mindful of further rain in the day.
The BMC urged the residents to reach out to its helpline no. 1916 for any incident related to weather conditions.
Meanwhile, heavy monsoon showers continued to affect several parts of Maharashtra. As lasting rain lashed the district of Nashik, things were still pretty grim there, but on the other hand, when several landslides struck the Karjat-Lonavala ghat in Pune, it caused great disruption.
Nearly 600 mm of rain in 24 hours caused landslides at several places along Mumbai-Pune railway line, officials said, adding that the rains had a very adverse effect on the train services. The 24-hour period from 12 midnight on Sunday that closed on Monday had seen an astounding 670 mm of rain at popular hill station, Lonavala, while at least 22 landslides were reported from all over Pune district in the past 2 days.
Authorities are still working to restore the affected region, while railway authorities are scouring the situation. Disaster response teams are on alert across the impact area of Maharashtra due to IMDT’s prediction of increased rainfall.