Mumbai rains: Road, rail traffic crippled

Heavy rainfall on Wednesday affected vehicular and train traffic. Prashant Nadkar & Deepak Joshi

Mohan Das (71), a resident of Vashi had come to Tata Memorial hospital in Parel for a check-up in the morning. While returning home, his train got stuck near Wadala station. As he felt unwell, his fellow commuter sought help for the cancer patient on Twitter. Over an hour later, a Railway Protection Force (RPF) team rescued him.

Renuka Sahani (28), who’s office is at Nariman Point, had to wait for two-and-half hours at Churhgate station to board a train for Borivali. Around 4 pm, when she finally boarded a fast train to Borivali, it was announced that the train will only go till Vasai. Sahani reached Borivali around 6 pm, four-and-a-half hours after she had started from Churchgate.

Since late Tuesday, heavy rainfall led to waterlogging on tracks between Sion and Kurla as well as Kanjurmarg and Vikhroli, resulting in CR suspending its services on the main line between CSMT to Thane. Prashant Nadkar & Deepak Joshi

“Due to heavy rainfall and high tide at the same time, railway tracks in low line areas like Mahim and Prabhadevi got submerged. This led to suspension of services between Andheri and Churchgate on all lines,” a PRO of WR said.

WR CPRO Ravinder Bhakar said, “Suburban services were affected following a point failure around 9.15 am due to heavy rain at Virar. Later, there was heavy back flow of water from Dharavi nullah, resulting in severe waterlogging on tracks at Mahim and Matunga Road stations… The slow lines were submerged in water at Mahim and Matunga Road stations, affecting traffic on slow lines between Churchgate and Andheri.”

“However, trains plied on fast lines between Churchgate and Andheri, though with reduced frequency. Trains were run at regular intervals between Andheri and Vasai Road station.”

“In spite of heavy rain, WR services were not completely suspended… The NDRF made arrangements for stranded passengers at Borivali, Kandivali, Malad, Goregaon, Andheri, Vile Parle, Santacruz, Khar and Bandra,” Bhakar added.

Since late Tuesday, heavy rainfall led to waterlogging on tracks between Sion and Kurla as well as Kanjurmarg and Vikhroli, resulting in CR suspending its services on the main line between CSMT to Thane. On harbour line, services were stopped at 10 am between Wadala and CSMT.

According to the PRO of CR, no trains plied between CSMT and Thane on the main line, as well as CSMT and Wadala/Andheri/Goregaon and Vadala-Vashi on the harbour line. Several trains were stuck between Sion and Kurla. The CR deployed RPF to rescue nearly 200 commuters from local trains.

The incessant rain also hit road traffic. With over 30 road diversions, BEST plied buses throughout the day.

In the western suburbs, traffic congestion was reported on the linking road at Bandra, S V Road near Goregaon, Sakinaka at Andheri, SV Road and Behram Baug at Jogeshwari, Hanuman Nagar and Akurli Road at Kandivali (East), Jankalyan Nagar at Malad (West), Lokmilan Junction at Chandivali and Oberoi Mall at Goregaon (East).

“I left office at 4 pm to avoid rush hour traffic but no trains were available at Churchgate. It took me 20 minutes to get a taxi to travel to Andheri West,” said Navneet Sethi, a commuter.

In the eastern suburbs, traffic came to standstill near Kurla junction on LBS Road, resulting in gridlocks on Santacruz-Chembur link road. Heavy traffic congestion was reported from Gandhi Market at Matunga, King Circle, Sonapur junction at Mulund, Hindmata junction near Dadar, LBS Road on Ghatkopar (West), Gandhi Nagar at Kanjurmarg and Mohamed Ali road below JJ flyover.