Heavy rain lashes Mumbai, people advised to stay home - NDTV

Mumbai: The municipal bodies of Mumbai have advised people against venturing out today as the city braces for heavy to very heavy rain over three days and high tide at 1.27 pm today, when waves 4.95 metres high are expected to test the metro's civic preparedness. As heavy rains lashed the city today, schools and offices also advised people to stay at home.   Rain had delayed flights and trains and caused traffic jams in water-logged areas of the city yesterday. It has been raining this morning too, heavily in places like Thane, a Mumbai suburb.   The weather office has sent alerts to disaster management units of the municipal bodies and state districts and to the Railways and other utilities that it will rain heavily in Maharashtra and the Konkan region over the next three days.   A Met department official explained why high tide during heavy rain was a worry. "If high Tides of 4 mts or above coincide with heavy rainfall then there is the possibility of inundation and flooding," he said.   Mumbai's municipal officials promise that this time the city is better prepared and fewer cases of roads being submerged under water are expected. "Today it rained heavily, there was not a single inch of water. For the next three days I have asked my men to be on alert and have asked to them do as much cleaning of drains as possible. As for road maintenance, we will do it at night," said  Additional Metropolitan Commissioner SVR Srinivas said.   The BMC has, however, warned of possible waterlogging in Hindmata, though it said the chances of roads flooding are slim.   Yesterday, local trains ran at least 20 minutes late. In Dadar, where roads were water-logged causing severe traffic jams, Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena or MNS held three government engineers captive for six hours in their BMC office. The engineers were allowed to leave only after they gave a written assurance that they would fix potholes as soon as the rain stopped. via Top Stories - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFDEeK3ZLSAXtOqQiN2rN9eYxV22w&url=http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/mumbai-braces-for-very-heavy-showers-high-tide-of-4-95-mts-expected-in-the-afternoon-396180

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