Waterlogging brings Mumbai to halt, shuts Andheri, Milan, Khar subways

Mumbai: The downpour in the city on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday and the resultant waterlogging put paid to Mumbaikars’ hopes of beginning the new week on a firm footing. Roads and railway tracks were submerged in Kanjurmarg, Kurla, Bhandup, Vile Parle and JVPD and water inundated homes and shops in Andheri, Sewri, Cotton Green, BKC, Chembur, Sakinaka, Kandivali, DN Nagar, Kings Circle, Juhu Circle, Irla, Sion, Goregaon, Chunabhatti and other neighbourhoods.

The Andheri, Khar and Milan subways were closed for traffic during the day on Monday to prevent any untoward incidents due to waterlogging. But accidents were reported from other parts of the city. In Malad, the traffic police rescued a couple whose car was stranded in the waterlogged Sainath Subway. A van reportedly toppled over near the Azad Nagar metro station in Andheri as the road ahead wasn’t visible, while a senior citizen slipped into a submerged, open manhole in Borivali’s Saibaba Nagar, escaping with minor injuries.

Kurla was among the mostly badly affected areas. “There was 2-3 feet of standing water in our neighbourhood,” said Kiran Paliwan, a Kurla resident. “Most of my neighbours couldn’t leave their homes, but since they didn’t have a work from home option, they had to take leave.” Water also entered some houses, said Paliwan, setting off a frenzy among residents to protect their TV, fridge and other electrical appliances.

Chawls and slums were more affected than apartments. “Every year, the authorities say we’ll clean the nullahs, but nothing ever happens. So much of budget is allotted for these monsoon works and yet, the public ends up facing such issues,” said Mandeep Singh Makkar, a resident of Chandivali which was inundated during Sunday night’s showers itself.

Many Mumbaikars who had set out for work in the morning had to return to their homes as the journey proved impossible. Yogesh Kamath, a Dahisar resident who had to return from Vile Parle, said, “There was a lot of waterlogging at Mithibai College at around 7:30am, and we could see college students trying to make their way through the water as they were informed about lectures being cancelled very late.”

Dhaval Shah, founder of the Andheri Lokhandwala Oshiwara Citizen’s Association (LOCA), blamed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for the incident near Azad Nagar metro station, where a van toppled over, saying, “If it is waterlogged everywhere, how can one see what’s ahead of the road? The tempo lost balance, but luckily the driver did not have serious injuries.”

Shah said if such was the situation during low tide, things could get much worse if it rained so much during high tide. “The BMC has to work on activating pumping stations at nullahs,” he noted.

Other residents and political leaders also slammed the BMC for widespread waterlogging.

“All claims of the BMC have gone down the drain,” former leader of opposition in the BMC, Ravi Raja, wrote in a post on social media platform X, referencing the situation in Dadar, Sion and Kings Circle. “The BMC spent more than ₹100 crore on drain cleaning, where did it go? Had the drains been cleared, this time would not have come. Pumps were installed at 450 places to drain the water but to no avail?”

“Mr Chief Minister, we had previously informed you about the rampant corruption and negligence that has plagued the drainage and pre-monsoon work in Mumbai. However, no attention has been paid to this matter,” said Varsha Gaikwad, MP from Mumbai North Central. “Today we saw many roads turn into mini-rivers and peak-hour traffic paralyzed owing to flooding,” she said.

Godfrey Pimenta, an activist, shared photos of the Mogra Nullah with overflowing garbage, which caused flooding in nearby areas. “Marol, which rarely experiences flooding, was under four feet water, which damaged many vehicles. The water also entered many residential premises and shops,” he said.

BMC officials, meanwhile, defended the civic body, saying the rainfall had exceeded the capacity of Mumbai’s storm water drains. “The city’s storm water drains can handle 55mm water per hour. The rainfall in the night exceeded this amount. But by morning, as the rain reduced and low tide set in, the water receded, which shows that drains have been desilted properly,” said an official from the storm water department.

An official manning drains at Ghatkopar, however, said they were choked, and the cause for the same could be properly ascertained only once the water receded.

Another official from the storm water drains department said most of the 481 pumps installed at various spots in the city were put to use. “But the rain was just over and above the capacity of our system,” he said.