Transport limps on torrential Tuesday

MUMBAI: Tuesday’s heavy downpour put a spanner in the works for the financial capital as its public transport systems battled low visibility and water logging. Thousands of Mumbaikars were stranded across the city as low-lying areas went under water. However, even as the trains stalled, the dependable BEST continued to ply buses.

 

While traffic crawled along navigable roads, several segments had to be closed due to water logging in certain areas, especially those along the Western Express Highway.

 

Subways at Khar, Vile Parle, Andheri, Dahisar and Malad were among the worst affected spots. Other affected areas included Bahar Junction, Andheri Tab, SV Road, Sheetal Talkies, Surve Chowk to Kurla Kamani on LBS Road, Hind Mata, Pravasi Junction at Goregaon, Narayan Nagar, Usha Nagar, RAK Road, Nawab Tank Bridge at Wadala, Sardar Hotel at Kala Chowky, Dadar TT, JVPD Circle and PB Marg, Mahananda Dairy at Goregaon, Sewri railway crossing and near SIES College at RAK Road.

 

Though their services remained largely unaffected, the BEST had to use 30 diversions to avoid severely waterlogged areas, such as Darpan Cinema, Milan subway, Andheri East, Dahisar subway, Kadivali, Borivali, Grant Road, Nana Chowk, Dadar TT, Parel TT and near Amulakh High School. By evening, 265 additional buses were plying to clear passenger traffic between CST-Dadar, Churchgate-Dadar, Dadar-Mahim, Kurla-Vashi, Ghatkopar-Vashi, Sion-Vashi, Dadar- Thane.

 

The suburban rail services were severely affected. While the Central services were suspended, the Western Railway operated its services with an average delay of 20 to 30 minutes.

 

Due to continuous rains, the water levels started rising and went beyond four inches at Sion-Matunga, Kurla, Byculla-Sandhurst Road and Wadala. This kept the traffic suspended on both the main and harbour line for over five to six hours. Later, when the water levels receded, services were resumed.

 

 

Traffic along the Mumbai–Pune Expressway was diverted for over four hours on Tuesday following a landslide late on Monday evening. According to sources, all vehicular traffic was diverted from the 47 kilometre mark at the Lonavala exit, through national Highway No 4. Traffic was then joined again at the 43 km mark on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The authorities expected all vehicular movement to be normalized by late on Tuesday evening