Mumbai rains: BMC blames 'neap tide' factor for city's flooding

Heavy rains lashed the city on the third consecutive day on Monday taking all chronic areas under knee-deep water. City’s all 255 chronic waterlogging locations saw severe flooding for hours especially in the morning when it was raining heavily. As per civic officials, the sea had neap tide on Monday, and if it rains during this period waterlogging cannot be avoided. Neap tide is when the difference between high tide and low tide is very thin which restricts rain water drainage in the sea.

A senior civic officer said, “The difference between the high tide and low tide was mere 1.5 metre on Monday and rainfall coincided with it. The rain water drainage in sea is restricted during neap tide which causes that water is accumulated in the city itself”.

Office goers were affected the most on Monday morning due to heavy rain, flooding on roads and traffic jams and delayed central and western railway services. From 8 am to 3 pm the areas which received maximum rainfall were Parel (125 mm), Wadala (120 mm), Dadar (118 mm), Marol (135 mm), Borivali and Kandivali (92 mm), Chembur (70 mm) and Kurla (67 mm). The island city recorded more rainfall compared to the suburbs. Many residents chose to stay home because of water logging while government declared holiday to all schools due to heavy rainfall.

The city was under water until Monday late afternoon and water started receding by evening but there was hardly any relief from traffic jams. In this period the city recorded 3 short circuits incidents, 23 tree falls and 11 house/wall collapse incidents. However, no was injured.

It was after the August 29 deluge last monsoon, the corporation in its report had stated that it was the neap tide accompanied with heavy rainfall that caused severe water logging in Mumbai. The disaster management unit this year have identified seven neap tide days in the period of June to September and Monday was one of them.

TALE OF THE DAY

Skymet says Mumbai weather is presently under the influence of two strong weather systems. Firstly, the off-shore trough along the West Coast is active from South Gujarat to Konkan, and secondly, the cyclonic circulation over Bay of Bengal has now moved inland and is seen over South Chhattisgarh, East Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha region

WATERLOGGING SPOTS

King Circle, Suman Nagar, Mulund Sonapur Junction, Hindmata junction, Kurla Kajupada and Anand Nagar Junction on Link Road Dahisar 

ROAD TRAFFIC

Traffic was diverted due to waterlogging at Andheri subway. Bahar bridge southbound traffic was slow-moving due to potholes on Sahar elevated road. “Traffic was normal in the city on Monday evening and there was no waterlogging,” said Joint Commissioner of Police, Traffic, Amitesh Kumar

AIR TRAFFIC

Around 244 departing flights were delayed at Mumbai airport with average delay of 21 minutes till 7.15 pm. At least 52 arriving flights were delayed with average delay of five minutes till 7.15 pm as per Flightradar24

According to Ixigo, a travel website, 28 per cent of total passenger traffic travelling from or to Mumbai airport had to bear with delays with New Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Hong Kong and Singapore