PTI
Pics by Rons Bantwal

Mumbai, Jul 1: Heavy rain lashed Mumbai on Tuesday morning and caused flooding in several parts of the city and its suburbs, disrupting normal life with rail, road and air services getting badly affected.

According to the Regional Meteorological Department, Colaba in South Mumbai recorded a heavy rainfall of 200 mm while Santacruz (suburbs) recorded 142.9 mm.

Water logging up to one and a half feet was reported in Bandra, Sion, Chembur, Ghatkopar, Andheri and several low lying areas. Besides, landslides in the Mumbai-Pune expressway disrupted the vehicular traffic.

Rail services were badly affected with the Central Railway services coming to a complete halt due to water logging between Kurla and Vidyavihar suburbs. However, trains on the Western and Harbour lines are running late by 15 to 20 minutes, according to railway sources.

Traffic snarls were also reported across various junctions in the city with several low-lying areas inundated by water, police said.

Flights from the international airports were delayed by an hour and a half, according to the Mumbai International Airport Website.

This is the second spell that the city has received this season.

Last year too, the city and its suburbs got paralyzed due to incessant rains.

Some of the national and international flights have been delayed between one and half hours and four hours.

The Jet Airways flight from Bhavnagar took off at 0840 hrs, almost two hours behind schedule. Similarly, the Jet Airways flight for Nagpur scheduled for 0705 hrs, took off at 0800 hrs and a flight from Dubai scheduled to arrive at 0325 hrs landed in Mumbai at 0735 hrs, the website reported.

Many schools in the city have declared a holiday and children who have already reached the institutions have been asked to return home.

The drains, nullahs and rivers are already in spate as the city received copious rainfall since midnight last.

According to the disaster management cell of the local civic body, high tide will be at 1100 hrs while low tide will be at 1600 hrs, which is expected to create more problems as flood waters are unlikely to recede fast.

Sources in the meteorological department said that monsoon has arrived on time and the city has already received more than 10 per cent of rainfall during this season.

Mumbai was earlier badly hit on July 26, 2005 when rains virtually flooded India's financial capital and life there came to a standstill for few days with all major routes submerged in floodwater.

Hightide timings for today:

11:01am in the morning measuring 4.33 metre
10:28 pm in the night measuring 3.73 metre

Rain status for Monday night:

City - 46.23 mm
Eastern suburbs -34.1 mm
Western suburbs - 37.2 mm

Biggest rainfall in areas:

Vikhroli - 26.4 mm
Gavanpada and kurla Kamani-25.7mm (All in Eastern suburbs)