4 dead, life stays hit as rains pound Maharashtra for fourth day

Mumbai: A man was electrocuted in Mumbai and three others were killed in Solapur in a lightning strike as rains clobbered several parts of Maharashtra for the fourth consecutive day, disrupting normal life besides hitting air, road and rail traffic, officials said on Monday.

Mohammed Ayub Kazi, 30, was electrocuted inside his home in Shivajinagar in Govandi suburb in north-east Mumbai. He was taken to the Rajawadi Hospital where he was declared dead.

Three others, including a woman, were killed and two injured after being struck by lightning as they took shelter from heavy rain under a shed in Solapur on Monday afternoon.

“The five were waiting for the rains to subside in a tin shed near the Mandrup village when suddenly lighting struck them. The three killed are Parvati M. Kore, 55, Chatursingh J. Rajpu, 41 and Sanket D. Chormule, 17. The two critically injured have been rushed to the district hospital,” Mandrup police official Baburao Rathod told IANS.

One person was reported washed away in a drain due to heavy floods in near Medina Masjid in Vikhroli and the Mumbai Fire Brigade has launched a search for him, an official said.

Overnight heavy spells of rain inundated at least 137 spots all over Mumbai, including Dadar, Sion, Matunga, Parel, Wadala, Mahim, Santacruz, Andheri, Jogeshwari, Malad, Dahisar and virtually halted all vehicular movement, leading to huge traffic snarls since daybreak.

Flights to and from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport were delayed by 35 minutes owing to heavy rain and low visibility, said an official.

Long-distance services on the Central Railway’s Mumbai-Pune sector were hit following the derailment of at least four wagons of a goods train between Jambrung and Thakurwadi in the Monkey Hill section of the Western Ghats early on Monday.

Several Mumbai-Pune trains were cancelled, some diverted and other long-distance trains hit at various locations en route as the CR made frantic efforts to restore normalcy.

Railway tracks were flooded at locations like Sion, Matunga and Kurla, impacting the CR’s suburban sector with trains running behind schedule, delaying lakhs of office-goers and students.

On the Western Railway (WR), some material from ongoing construction work fell and broke the overhead electric wires at Marine Line, hitting services on the slow line between Churchgate-Mumbai Central around 8 a.m.

Restoration was taken up on a war-footing and services were restored at 11 a.m., said a WR official, while heavy rains led to cancellation of several outstation services.

Road traffic took the brunt of the heavy rain with water-logging in several areas of the city, eastern and western suburbs, ndheri subway was shut due to flooding while the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation activated pumps to throw out the gushing rain water in other subways.

In Palghar district, the Surya River was hovering near the danger mark, posing a risk to at least 26 villages on its banks even as relief agencies were kept on standby.

The Vasai-Virar belt received heavy rains, and around two dozen villages in coastal salt-pans were on the verge of isolation due to waterlogging.

Thane city and district were also lashed by heavy flooding several parts of the city, including housing complexes, stranding people and halting vehicular traffic.

Till 6 p.m., the city notched 64 mm, the eastern suburbs 74 mm and the western suburbs 88 mm rains, with Chembur (eastern suburb) recording 188 mm and Bandra (western suburb) getting 194 mm rains even as the downpour continued unabated.

The IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy spells in Mumbai from Monday to Friday, and temperatures at a maximum of 28 degrees and 23 degrees.

In the coastal Konkan region, Palghar will get extremely heavy rains on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and Thane the same, while Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg will get heavy to very heavy rains till Friday, said the IMD.

Elsewhere in the state, heavy rains lashed many parts of western Maharashtra like Solapur, Sangli, Satara, Ahmednagar, Pune, the twin hillstations of Lonavala-Khandala, Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani, Nashik and other parts of northern Maharashtra, with rains forecast over the next three days in parched Marathwada-Vidarbha regions.

 Published on: July 1, 2019 at 21:50 IST

IANS