With southwest monsoon gaining momentum in the region, more than 200 mm rains lashed Mumbai in the last 24 hours. The heavy Mumbai rains, however, once again made commuting a nightmare for residents, with roads waterlogged at several places bringing traffic to a halt. Three deaths have been reported from Mumbai and adjoining Thane since Sunday.

It poured heavily throughout the night and continued in the morning.

According to weathermen, intermittent heavy to moderate showers will continue on Monday. Weather experts have also issued warning of high tides in the region.

Many schools and colleges did not open on Monday.

The situation is particularly bad in the lower regions of Chembur and Hindmata, which get flooded every time there is a heavy spell of rain. Streets in Bandra, Andheri, Kurla and Ghatkopar are flooded too, and water has collected under the Andheri Metro station.

An official from the disaster management unit of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said two persons died on Sunday evening when a tree fell on them near the Metro Cinema in south Mumbai. Around 2.15 am on Monday, a 13-year-old boy lost his life and his parents sustained injuries when an adjacent wall collapsed on their house at Wadol village in Ambernath taluka of Thane, Thane civic body’s regional disaster management cell chief Santosh Kadam said.

The Thane district received 229.81 mm rain in the last 24 hours.

Kadam said a 65-foot compound wall of a housing complex collapsed in Thane city on Monday morning, crushing two cars and another vehicle.

In Antop Hill area of Mumbai’s Wadala, a huge part of a compound caved in, damaging 15-odd cars which got buried under the debris, BMC officials said.

No casualty was, however, reported.

Officials from the fire brigade and the Mumbai Police are reportedly at the spot and assessing the situation.

Mumbai received 231.4 mm rain in the last 24 hours, an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) here said.

“The Santacruz weather station recorded 231.4 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours. So much rainfall is categorised as extremely heavy showers,” IMD Mumbai Director Ajay Kumar told PTI.

“This is the first extremely heavy rainfall recorded in Mumbai in the current season,” he said.

Owing to the heavy showers, several parts of Mumbai, such as Dharavi, Sion, Matunga, Malad, Kurla, Bhandup, Worli and Lower Parel, were also flooded with water up to two to three feet.

“Traffic has been diverted from Sion, King’s circle, National College in Bandra, Siddharth Hospital in Goregaon, Chembur Phatak, Pratiksha Nagar in Sion, Milan Subway in Santacruz and Powai area of the city,” a statement issued by civic body said.

A container broke down on a bridge at suburban Vikhroli near Eastern Express Highway this morning, because of which vehicular movement in the area was slow, the Mumbai Police said.

Local train services were running late by 5 to 10 minutes, officials said.

“There is some water accumulation at Sion due to continuous rains but trains are running on all three lines of the Central Railway (main line, harbour and trans-harbour) with a slight delay of 5 to 7 minutes,” CR Chief Public Relations Officer Sunil Udasi said.

In a tweet, the Western Railway said, “WR Suburban trains are running with no disruption. There is slight delay due to low visibility in some areas due to rains.”

#MumbaiRains: Rains have started to become intense in Chembur. #MumbaiMonsoon #MumbaiRainsLive #MumbaiRain pic.twitter.com/ErZF4dQlyd

— SkymetWeather (@SkymetWeather) June 25, 2018

The IMD has predicted heavy-to-very heavy rain in the city in the next 24 to 48 hours.

“These heavy showers are due to a cyclonic circulation over north Konkan and adjoining south Gujarat and another circulation in the Bay of Bengal. We expect the rain activity to increase in the coming week, with scattered heavy to very heavy rain on June 27 and 28 in parts of north Konkan, including Mumbai,” an IMD official said.

In Delhi, however, there is no sign of relief from the scorching heat, though the city woke up to partly cloudy sky on Monday. The minimum temperature was recorded at 31.6 degrees Celsius, three notches above the season’s average, the local weather office said.

The air-quality across the National Capital Region (NCR) was moderate on Monday, according to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).

An India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said the sky would remain partly cloudy throughout the day, with maximum temperature likely to hover around 41 degrees.

At 8.30 am, humidity was recorded at 47 per cent.

According to Skymet Weather Services, Delhi NCR, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh can expect monsoon to arrive by June 27.

(With agency inputs)