Mumbai floods: Red alert for Indian city

MUMBAI:India’s weather department has issued a red alert for Mumbai as overwhelming rains continue to lash the city and its neighboring districts.

The city is anticipated to get overwhelming to exceptionally overwhelming precipitation on Friday, driving to more surges, the Indian Meteorological Division (IMD) said. 

Since Monday, parts of the city have been submerged waist-deep in water, bringing life to a standstill.

Monsoon downpours are common in Mumbai around this time of the year. But experts say climate alter and unchecked urban improvement has made downpours more seriously and less unsurprising in later years. 

Thousands of people move to Mumbai each day in look of occupations which powers quick development, which is exceptionally regularly unregulated. 

 Many regions have ageing waste systems which causes flooding as well. The city’s tremendous mangrove swamps, which act as a common buffer amid surges, have moreover been built over within the past few decades.

On Thursday, Mumbai’s civic body banned people from visiting beaches on the days for which the weather forecasting agency has predicted heavy rainfall.

In many areas, waterlogging led to huge traffic snarls and people were seen wading through brown and black murky water which flooded the streets.

Bus services and commuter trains – which are the lifeline of the city’s transport system – were also disrupted, leaving people stranded on stations for hours.

Heavy rains have also battered Mumbai’s neighbouring districts. Traffic on a key national highway connecting Mumbai to the tourist state of Goa was diverted after a landslide in Chiplun city.

Authorities said that work to remove the debris was underway, but that the movement of vehicles along the route would be affected for least two days, news channel NDTV reported.

Meanwhile, the IMD has also issued flood alerts for the southern state of Kerala and parts of Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh amid incessant rains.

Since Monday, parts of the city have been submerged waist-deep in water, bringing life to a standstill.India’s weather department has issued a red alert for Mumbai as overwhelming rains continue to lash the city and its neighboring districts.