First rain in Mumbai & Andheri subway floods, shuts; MP slams BMC

Mumbai: As the season’s first pre-monsoon showers led to the closure of the Andheri subway on Wednesday, Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad launched a scathing attack on the BMC, questioning its annual desilting exercise.“The monsoon has not even properly arrived in Mumbai yet, and just a few showers have left the Andheri subway submerged. Is this the result of the BMC’s drain-cleaning work? The civic body, which claims to have spent crores of rupees on desilting, has been exposed in the very first spell of rain. If such a light shower can create this situation, what will happen when the city receives heavy rainfall? The hollow claims of drain cleaning and the administration’s inaction have once again been laid bare,” she said.BMC, though, maintained that the flooding at the Andheri subway is a structural challenge. Civic officials said they are exploring long-term solutions to address waterlogging at the chronic flooding spot. According to the administration, the primary issue is that four major drains, each measuring about 1.3 metres in diameter, converge into a single 3.3-metre-wide outfall, creating a bottleneck that causes water to accumulate rapidly during intense rainfall.Additional municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar said, “We are exploring ways to minimise the flooding. However, there are certain challenges. We also want to ensure that we undertake a cost-benefit analysis before taking up any major work which may not provide 100% relief.”Meanwhile, on Wednesday morning, Mumbai woke up to significant rain activity, particularly in the western suburbs, resulting in the temporary closure of the Andheri subway. The bulk of the rainfall was recorded between 7 am and 8 am. Among the highest rainfall recordings were Versova (69 mm), Vile Parle East (52 mm), Andheri East (49 mm), Andheri West (46 mm), Vile Parle (33 mm) and Santacruz (30 mm). In the eastern suburbs, Chembur recorded 12 mm of rainfall.The IMD, in its forecast for Thursday, issued a yellow alert indicating thunderstorms accompanied by lightning, heavy rainfall and gusty winds at isolated places. Meanwhile, the rains brought down the minimum temperature at the Santacruz observatory to 22.8 degrees Celsius from 28.6 degrees Celsius recorded a day ago. In the case of the IMD Colaba observatory, the minimum temperature recorded was 26.8 degrees Celsius, lower than 29.5 degrees Celsius recorded a day ago.