Mumbai gets back to work, netas get back to politicking

As the elements relented on Wednesday, the megapolis emerged from the deluge with at least 15 less lives and three crumbled buildings, while its political class entered a three-way muck-chucking contest, with ruling allies BJP and Shiv Sena criticising each other, and the Congress and NCP flaying them both.

The casualties, expected to rise with seven people reported missing, only propelled Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam to target the administration for Tuesday’s gridlock, saying: “You cannot wash your hands of this by blaming it on nature every time. There was rampant corruption in drain-cleaning contracts.” He went on to criticise Sena president Uddhav Thackeray for comparing Tuesday with the 26/7 deluge. “Where is the comparison? The rainfall on July 26, 2005 was 944 mm, and on Tuesday it was only 344 mm.”

The unceasing rainfall was expected to continue on Wednesday, but weathermen revised Mumbai’s weather warning to ‘low-level’ after Colaba recorded 6.4mm rainfall and Santacruz 7.6 mm till 8.30 pm.

Nirupam’s BJP counterpart Ashish Shelar also targeted Thackeray without naming him. “Sena should simply apologise and rectify its mistakes instead of living in denial and being arrogant?” he said, adding that it wasn’t nature but the regime that was to blame.

Thackeray defended himself saying the Sena-led BMC had finished widening the Mithi river and streamlining storm-water drains but some other projects resulted in the flooding, which claimed 10 people in Mumbai, four in neighbouring Thane and one in Navi Mumbai. Of the fatalities, six were toddlers, two of whom were trapped in rubble after their building collapsed. A lawyer who was found unconscious in a car in Sion was rushed to hospital by the police but died of suffocation.

Thackeray asked all his detractors where they were on Tuesday when Shiv Sainiks were helping people stranded on waterlogged streets, adding that large-scale digging for some projects had led to the flooding. He was referring to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s pet Metro rail project.   

NCP leader Dhananjay Munde said both Sena and BJP were responsible for the mess and sought an inquiry by a retired judge into the BMC’s annual drain-cleaning exercise on which thousands of crores of rupees have been spent. He sought to know where was the BJP, which calls itself a “watchdog”, was on Tuesday.

Last evening, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) called off search operations for a gastroenterologist, Deepak Amarapurkar, attached to Bombay Hospital, who is believed to have fallen into a manhole at Elphinstone on Tuesday while walking home through flooded streets. He was was not found till the time of going to press.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta said 23 locations had received more than 200 mm of rainfall in 24 hours, while 26 got over 50 mm in just one hour on Tuesday. But the flooding worsened the city’s shoddy roads, leaving behind heaps of rubbish and muck in its wake, and puddles in potholes.

The BMC advised people not to self-medicate for headache, vomiting or fever and see a doctor Commuters stir back to life.

On Wednesday, the suburban train services resumed a few hours later than the usual time of 4 am, seeing few commuters — many stayed in after being urged by the authorities not to step out until necessary. With schools and colleges shut and offices instructing their employees to stay put at home, even arterial roads didn’t see many motorists till afternoon.  

Western Railway (WR) resumed services on the Andheri-Churchgate stretch by 6.30 am, and Central Railway (CR) started the first CSMT-Kalyan local at 7:30 am, which halted every now and then for a few minutes. Services from Kurla to CSTM were suspended for several hours due to technical glitches and tree falls. The first train on Harbour line started from CSMT at 9am for Panvel, but halted due to rains and water logging. Only by 6pm, were all three lines up and running, though services on the Kurla-CSMT fast line was still limping.

Thousands of commuters looking to head out of the city on long route trains were left stranded at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, as trains stopped short of entering the city.

CR cancelled nearly 35 percent of its usual 1,623 services, while WR cancelled around 15 percent of the 1,306 services it runs.

Traffic on the Western and Eastern Express Highways was smooth through the day barrign usual traffic congestion. In the evening peak hour, however, traffic moved slowly on all roads. There was a snarl on LBS Road as well as the northbound-lane of the Freeway.

Traffic restrictions on the Mumbai Pune Expressway were lifted on Wednesday morning.

Operations at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) normalised, though flight delays of around 20 to 25 minutes continued during the morning hours. Some flights were late by as much as two hours as crew members could not reach on time. For the many passengers who had stayed inside the terminal overnight instead of going back home, the airport authorities provided transportation.

The aftermath

At least 15 lives were lost in the rains, with seven persons still missing. 
On Wednesday, train and flight services normalised, with some delays