Mumbai On Heavy Rain Alert, No Weekend Off For Officials

Mumbai: Mumbai is bracing for heavy rain today amid warnings from the meteorological department for the weekend. Rain had lashed the city yesterday, leaving several areas waterlogged, delaying trains and forcing at least one flight to divert. According to the India Meteorological Department or IMD, monsoon has reached the Konkan coast.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation or BMC, which looks after Mumbai's civic needs, has taken a number of precautionary measures with the met department predicting extremely heavy rainfall between Saturday and Monday.

On Thursday, fishermen were warned against going too far out into the sea.

Heavy rain has also been forecast for coastal Karnataka, Goa and south Maharashtra.
 Residents of Mumbai have been asked to stay in as much as they can. In a statement, the Regional Meteorological Centre of Mumbai said, "As rainfall activity is likely to enhance from 8th June with further increase on 9th June, people are advised to abstain from outdoor activities as much as possible during the period and also watch for the weather."

Schools will be kept open at all times for shelter if there is flooding, said the civic body BMC.

Navy personnel will be on stand-by in parts of the city that are usually most flooded when there is heavy rain, say officials.

The BMC has cancelled the leaves of all its senior officials to prepare for any emergency. Three teams of National Disaster Response Force or NDRF will be stationed at Parel, Mankhurd (for eastern suburbs) and Andheri Sports Complex (for western suburbs). They are equipped with walkie-talkies and flood rescue material.

(With inputs from PTI and ANI)