Heavy Rain In Mumbai, Commuters Stranded; Schools, Colleges Shut Today

Heavy rain in Mumbai this evening flooded many roads and led to some flight diversions. Vehicles moved slowly on the flooded roads, leading to traffic jams in many parts of the country's financial capital. The Mumbai municipal agency announced holiday for schools and colleges on Thursday.

SpiceJet, IndiGo and Vistara in posts on X said some flights have been diverted.

Vistara said flight No. UK534 from Hyderabad to Mumbai is returning to Hyderabad due to bad weather at Mumbai airport, and was expected to land in Hyderabad at 9.15 pm. Another flight, UK941, from Delhi to Mumbai has been diverted to Hyderabad and was expected to arrive at 9.10 pm.

"Due to bad weather (heavy rain) in Mumbai, all departures/arrivals and their consequential flights may get affected. Passengers are requested to keep a check on their flight status," SpiceJet said in the post on X.

#WeatherUpdate: Due to bad weather (heavy rain) in Mumbai (BOM), all departures/arrivals and their consequential flights may get affected. Passengers are requested to keep a check on their flight status via https://t.co/VkU7yLjrw0.

— SpiceJet (@flyspicejet) September 25, 2024

The weather office issued an alert for Mumbai and neighbouring districts, predicting "extremely heavy rainfall". The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast extremely heavy rain till Thursday morning.

Several suburbs in Mumbai have been receiving significant rain since afternoon today, with Mulund and its surroundings experiencing the heaviest rainfall, flooding low-lying areas.

In Andheri, a woman fell into an open manhole and died. A search operation was launched and her body was taken out.

The IMD's 5.30 pm forecast said it expected "extremely heavy rainfall and thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds at isolated places" in Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Ratnagiri districts.

IMD scientist Sushma Nair said a trough runs from north Konkan to south Bangladesh across a cyclonic circulation over south Chhattisgarh and its neighbourhood, extending to the middle tropospheric level tilting southwards with height.

"This will lead to fairly widespread to widespread light or moderate rainfall, and is very likely over Konkan and Goa during the week," she told news agency PTI.