AMN /
Indian Metrological Department, AMD has withdrawn warning for heavy rainfall for Mumbai and nearby areas. IMD has informed there will be only intermittent rains for next 48 hours at few places.
Mumbai city and its suburbs have been witnessing intermittent rainfall since morning which caused inconvenience to office-goers.
The downpour accompanied by thunder and lightning started yesterday afternoon.
Meanwhile, high tide is expected around 12 PM and a low tide is expected around 6 pm. State government has instructed that schools and colleges in Mumbai Metropolitan Region to remain closed today.
Flight operations at the Mumbai airport remain affected for the second day today.
The skidding of a SpiceJet aircraft on the main runway last night compounded the problem further as it forced the private airport operator to shift operations to the secondary runway, which can carry out limited operations.
According to airport officials, as many as 56 flights have been diverted to different airports till this morning as the main runway continues to be out of use due to the SpiceJet aircraft stuck there.
Due to the downpour, five long distance trains of the Western Railways have been cancelled. Two other trains of the Western Railways have been diverted via Manmad-Daund route.
While the vehicular movement on both the Eastern and Western Express Highways is normal, traffic snarls are witnessed on many important roads of the city.
The suburban train services of the Central Railway, the Western Railway and on the Harbour corridor trains were running late by 5 to 10 minutes. The bus services of the BEST were running smoothly.
The ‘dabbawalas’ of Mumbai cancelled their delivery of over two lakh tiffins to office- goers in the city in view of the disruption of suburban rail services after heavy rains today.
The tiffin delivery men use suburban trains to ensure the lunch boxes reach their destination on time.
Subhash Talekar, spokesperson of the Mumbai Dabbawala Association said, over 5,000 ‘dabbawalas’, who deliver around two lakh ‘dabbas’ (tiffins) a day won’t be able to do so today due to disruption of train services after heavy rains adding that they will resume our services tomorrow.
The dabbawallas pride themselves on the ‘deliver on time’ motto, irrespective of Mumbai’s heat or heavy rains.