Heavy rains lashed Mumbai, the coastal Konkan and some of its neighbouring districts witnessed heavy rains and flooding on of the state since last night, inundating many towns, villages in different areas, hitting road and rail traffic, officials said here on Tuesday.

The Indian Met Department (IMD) on Tuesday issued a heavy rainfall alert for Maharashtra over the next four days. The Kundalika river in Raigad district, located near Mumbai, has crossed the danger mark, as per an official statement.

Following this Chief Minister Eknath Shinde directed the state administration officials to take precautions and ensured there is no loss of life or property.

The IMD has issued an ‘orange alert’ for south Konkan region and Goa and a ‘yellow alert’ for north Konkan, north central and south central Maharashtra and Marathwada regions.

The MeT department has also issued four colour-coded predictions based on the prevailing weather systems. The green colour indicates no warning, yellow is to keep a watch, orange is to stay alert, while red means a warning and that action needs to be taken.

As per IMD, “The Marathwada region is likely to witness thunderstorms accompanied with lightning, heavy rain and gusty winds with a speed of 40-50 kmph.”

The Chief Minister’s Office in a statement said CM Shinde is in touch with collectors of Thane, Raigad, Palghar, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts. The National Disaster Response Force has also been asked to remain alert.

Besides, Shinde has put all districts on high alert and directed them to make all arrangements including shifting of people living in vulnerable areas as the incessant rains continued.

In Mumbai, the chronic floor-prone areas like Sion, Wadala, Kings Circle, Bhandup, Parel, Kurla and Nehru Nagar were flooded with knee-deep or waist-deep water, several subways were waterlogged hampering east-west traffic movement and traffic crawling at a snail’s pace on the two highways.

The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has deployed extra pumps to eject the flood waters in several areas.

Other coastal districts of Palghar, Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg were lashed by heavy rains while towns like Chiplun, Vaibhavwadi, Ambet, Khed, Poladpur and others were flooded with road traffic closed.

Villagers living in the vicinity of landslide or hillslide prone areas and on the banks of rivers or the Arabian Sea have been put on high alert with the major Vashishth and Jagbudi rivers flooded and flowing above the danger marks in some areas.

The Kundalika river has also crossed the danger mark, while Amba, Savitri, Patalganga, Ulhas and Gadi rivers are flowing close to the danger levels.

According to K.S Hosalikar, “The entire west coast from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala is covered with dense clouds with the possibility of very heavy to heavy rains, and isolated extremely heavy rains for the coastal regions plus central and western Maharashtra.”

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the government has reviewed the rainfall situation in the state and the administration has been put on a high alert.