On the day that Mumbai received its highest rainfall of 2010, with an average of 116.17 mm of rain, the city’s six major lakes did not receive a lot of water. the rains did not manage to paralyse the railway services completely, but succeeded in drowning the timetable. According to Central Railway chief spokesperson Srinivas Mudgerikar, the water had submerged tracks at Sion and Wadala in the afternoon, and there was also a point when the water from the civil areas was flowing onto the tracks.
“We had two pumps at Sion and one at Wadala, but when the water from the civil side starts flowing in, it gets difficult to pump it out. But we managed to ply trains most of the day, with locals running around 45 minutes late on the mainline, and 20 minutes on the Harbour Line,” Mr Mudgerikar said.
Meanwhile, according to Western Railway chief spokesperson, S.S. Gupta, Western Railways trains ran normally till afternoon, but due to minor incidents of water-logging at Lower Parel, Elphinstone Road and Dadar and heavy road traffic at some level crossing gates, some trains were late by 20 to 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, Vihar lake topped the charts, receiving 35 mm, followed by Tulsi lake at 12 mm and Upper Vaitarna at three mm. The Bhatsa lake only received two mm and Modak Sagar and Tansa received a solitary mm of rainfall each.
The eastern suburbs received an average of around 94.15 mm of rain, and the western suburbs got 39.94 mm.
Dharavi received a massive 168.86 mm of rain and a number of low-lying areas in south-central Mumbai were water-logged.