Intense monsoon spell has Mumbai struggling with waterlogging, traffic snarls and train delays

After a relatively dry start to July, Mumbai woke up on Monday to heavy overnight showers that lashed several parts of the city, leading to widespread waterlogging, traffic snarls, and delays in local train services. During late evening hours, the sky was overcast with seemingly dense and dark grey clouds.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for Mumbai, Thane and Palghar for the next 48 hours, warning of moderate to heavy rain at isolated places.

According to the IMD’s Santacruz observatory, Mumbai recorded over 115 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours, most of it concentrated in the early morning hours. The eastern suburbs and central Mumbai bore the brunt of the downpour, with areas like Sion, Dadar TT, Kurla, Chembur, and Ghatkopar reporting waterlogging up to knee-deep levels in parts.

Vehicular traffic crawled on major arterial roads and Mumbai traffic police issued advisories urging people to avoid flood-prone areas and opt for public transport where possible.

Students and office-goers faced the major brunt of traffic chaos on the roads and the "apparent unavailability of cab aggregators." " I had to reach my office at BKC from Goregaon at 10am for a meeting but i ended up reaching only around 12. It was so bad on the roads; cars just moved at a slower pace than a snail," said Neesha Tyagi, a social media executive from Mumbai.

The India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) orange alert will remain in place until Tuesday morning, following which a yellow alert will hold.

"The worse part is how students and other essential frontline staff gets hit by knee deep water flooding the roads and railway tracks," says Nitin Chauhan, a resident from Sion which has always been the first to get water logged over the years.

Visuals on social media showed cars partially submerged in Dadar and Matunga, while schoolchildren and office-goers waded through flooded streets in Andheri East and King’s Circle.

The IMD attributed the sudden burst of rainfall to active monsoon conditions over the Konkan coast. “Mumbai and adjoining districts are likely to receive more showers in spells over the next two to three days,” said an IMD official.

While the monsoon surge has helped improve water stock levels in the city's lakes and reservoirs officials warn that sustained heavy rain could increase the risk of landslides in hilly areas like Powai and Mulund, and exacerbate flooding in low-lying slums and informal settlements.

Residents in these vulnerable areas are already facing hardships. “We barely slept last night because the rainwater entered our homes,” said Mukund Rastogi, a resident of 90 feet road, Dharavi.

With more rain expected, civic officials and citizens remain alert.

India