Swelling Mithi disrupts Mumbai's local services, tracks submerged under 15 inches

India Today

3 hours ago

The water of the Mithi river has swelled due to the incessant rains, leading to the suspension of railway services on the Central and the harbour railway lines. The services have been suspended on these lines for more than four hours. At 2.22 pm, the water level in the Mithi river around Kurla and Chunabhatti areas had reduced to 3.3 metres. However, it again rose to 3.6 metres at 2.53 pm due to the heavy rains and low tide in the Arabian Sea. advertisementAs a result, there is about 15 inches of water on the railway tracks at the Kurla railway station.
The local trains operate when there is up to six inches of water on the railway tracks, while mail trains operate with up to 4 inches of water above the railway tracks.There are 8 outstation trains which are presently stranded in these sections. This includes the Delhi-CSMT Rajdhani Express, which is stranded at Ghatkopar. Similarly, some are stranded at Thane, Kalyan and other places.The Central Railway officials are waiting for the Mithi river water to recede so that local train services can be resumed and outstation services too can be restored.The floodgates were closed at around 8.30 am and due to heavy rain, the excess water couldn't go out, resulting in the accumulation. A total of 136 pumps are currently operating to pump water into the sea. These include 107 pumps by the Central Railways and 29 by the Mumbai civic body BMC. The floodgates were opened at around 11 am, but due to heavy rains, water couldn't move out of the Kurla area. There is high tide again at 8.30pm and the authorities hope that the water will recede before that.The Central Railway has cancelled 14 trains from CSMT on Tuesday due to the heavy rains. Apart from this, five trains have also terminated at Panvel, Pune and Igatpuri.In all, the combination of high tides in the Arabian Sea and heavy rains of over 185 mm over the last 12 hours in Kurla area has specifically caused havoc on the services of the Central Railway.Following the cancellation and disruption of services, many passengers have been stranded at various railway stations, including the CSMT. However, the crowd at these stations was comparatively low as offices, schools and colleges remained closed on Tuesday. Other services of the Central railway, away from the Kurla area, have been working without a glitch.Local train services are presently running smoothly on the harbour lines between Panvel and Vashi, the trans harbor lines between Thane and Vashi and the main lines such as Thane-Kalyan-Kasara and Thane-Kalyan-Karjat. - Ends