Heavy rain and thunderstorms returned to Mumbai on Wednesday morning after a brief lull, disrupting local train services and causing inconvenience for office-goers across the city.
Long-distance train services towards Gujarat were also affected due to waterlogging in the Vasai-Virar section of neighbouring Palghar district and at several locations in south Gujarat. Meanwhile, restoration work continued on the Mumbai-Pune route following landslides in the Bhor Ghat section earlier this week.
The rainfall also led to a rise in water levels across Mumbai's reservoirs, with Tulsi Lake beginning to overflow late on Tuesday night, just hours after nearby Vihar Lake overflowed. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast intermittent spells of light to moderate rain in Mumbai and its suburbs throughout the day.
Local train services on both the Central Railway and Western Railway networks were running 25 to 30 minutes behind schedule, although Metro and public bus services continued to operate normally.
On the Central Railway network, train movement was delayed after heavy rain washed away the stone ballast beneath the tracks between Neral and Shelu stations in neighbouring Raigad district during the early hours of Wednesday.
Central Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Swapnil Nila said the washout near Neral station was detected at around 4 am, and repair work began immediately. Services resumed before 6.15 am.
He also said restoration work in the Bhor Ghat section between Karjat and Lonavala was still in progress following Monday's landslide, with several long-distance trains diverted, cancelled or short-terminated.
Western Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Vineet Abhishek said mail and express train services remained suspended between 7.20 pm on Tuesday and 6.50 am on Wednesday because of waterlogging near a bridge close to Sachin station in the Surat region.
Operations resumed once floodwaters receded. According to Abhishek, 39 trains have been cancelled, 21 short-terminated and 46 rescheduled due to the disruption.
He added, "Local trains are running between Churchgate, Virar and Dahanu with delays of 25 to 30 minutes, mainly due to speed restrictions between Vasai, Nalasopara and Virar," noting that although the tracks remained waterlogged, the water level was below the danger mark.
More than 200 suburban train services were cancelled on Tuesday, primarily due to monsoon-related flooding.
Western Railway had suspended suburban services beyond Vasai Road at around 4.30 pm on Tuesday after floodwaters rose above track level, leaving hundreds of commuters stranded. Many passengers were forced to walk from Vasai to Virar through knee-deep water along the railway tracks.
Videos circulating on social media showed long queues of commuters using mobile phone flashlights while wading through flooded tracks late into the night.
Some videos also purportedly showed passengers protesting at Vasai Road station and travelling from Vasai to Virar in tractors after train services were suspended. However, PTI could not independently verify the authenticity of these videos.
According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the island city recorded an average rainfall of 61.13 mm in the 48 hours ending at 8 am on Wednesday, while the eastern and western suburbs received 86.66 mm and 86.90 mm respectively.
Citing the IMD forecast, the civic body said Mumbai and its suburbs are expected to remain generally cloudy, with intermittent spells of light to moderate rain throughout the day. A high tide of 3.77 metres is forecast at 5.17 pm on Wednesday, followed by another high tide of 3.49 metres at 7 am on Thursday.
Tulsi, the smallest of Mumbai's seven drinking water reservoirs, began overflowing at 11.43 pm on Tuesday, nearly three hours after Vihar Lake started overflowing at 9 pm.
Despite the two reservoirs reaching capacity, the combined water stock across Mumbai's seven reservoirs stood at 41.43% of total live storage capacity. Together, the reservoirs held 598,589 million litres of water against a total live storage capacity of 1,447,363 million litres.
The BMC said Modak Sagar was 72% full, Tansa nearly 69%, Bhatsa 36%, Middle Vaitarna 35% and Upper Vaitarna 21%, while Vihar and Tulsi had reached full capacity after overflowing.
Located within Sanjay Gandhi National Park, around 35 kilometres from the BMC headquarters, Tulsi Lake has a live storage capacity of 8,046 million litres and supplies approximately 18 million litres of drinking water to Mumbai each day. Overflow from Tulsi drains into Vihar Lake.
Vihar, Tulsi and Powai lakes are all situated within Mumbai. While Powai Lake also overflowed earlier this month, its water is not used for drinking purposes.
Tulsi Lake was constructed in 1879 at an estimated cost of Rs 40 lakh. It has a catchment area of 6.76 square kilometres and a water spread area of approximately 1.35 square kilometres when full.
According to the BMC, Tulsi Lake last overflowed on August 16 last year and previously on August 4, 2024.
Wednesday's rainfall once again disrupted transport across Mumbai and surrounding areas, even as the city's reservoirs continued to receive a steady inflow from the ongoing monsoon.
