NEW DELHI: Extremely heavy rains will continue to batter Mumbai and neighbouring areas until Thursday morning, the IMD said in a special bulletin.
On Wednesday, incessant heavy rainfall and strong winds battered Mumbai and neighbouring Thane and Palghar districts, disrupting suburban train and bus services.
Three high-capacity cranes deployed at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Raigad district collapsed due to gusty winds in the afternoon, but there was no casualty, an official said.
From 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, extremely heavy rainfall (above 20 cm) lashed parts of Mumbai.
Colaba recorded 22.9 cm while Santacruz recorded 8.8 cm of rainfall, according to the India Meteorological Department.
Wind speed reached 70 kmph and gusted at 107 kmph between 5pm and 5.15 pm in Colaba.
"Strong winds with speed reaching 70 kmph along and off the Mumbai and adjoining Konkan coast likely to continue till 6th morning and gradually reduce thereafter. Extremely heavy rainfall is also likely to continue over Mumbai tonight and reduce from tomorrow 6th August," the special bulletin said.
In another bulletin, the IMD said widespread rainfall with isolated, scattered heavy to very heavy falls are most likely to continue over Gujarat, central Maharashtra, the ghat areas till August 6 and reduce thereafter.
Widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy falls are likely over Tamil Nadu, Kerala and south interior and coastal Karnataka during next 4-5 days.
Isolated extremely heavy falls are likely over coastal Karnataka on August 8-9, over Tamil Nadu on August 6 and 8-9 and over Kerala and Mahe during August 5-9.
The Colaba weather observatory in south Mumbai on Wednesday recorded its highest single-day precipitation in the last 22 years for the month of August, said an India Meteorological Department official.
K S Hosalikar, deputy director general of IMD, Mumbai said the Colaba observatory received 293 mm rainfall from 8.30 am to 8.30 pm.
In August 1998, the observatory had received 261.9 mm rainfall in 24 hours which was a record for the month till now, but Wednesday's rain broke it within only 12 hours.
The figure for 24 hours since 8.30 am will be available on Thursday.
Even during the deluge of 2005 when 944 mm rainfall was recorded in 24 hours at Santacruz observatory in the suburbs, Colaba's reading was 161 mm. received the highest rainfall of the season within just 12 hours on Wednesday besides the highest-ever wind speed, the city civic body said.
According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the island city recorded 215.8 mm rain, followed by 101.9 mm in eastern suburbs and 76.03 mm in western suburbs.
The 'D' civic ward, that includes upscale areas like Malabar Hill and Peddar Road, received 309 mm rainfall, while the maximum wind speed of 101.4 kmph was recorded at Marine drive around 4.15 pm, the civic body said.
"The Fire Brigade and its flood rescue teams are deployed at half a dozen Regional Reconciliation Centres with th required manpower and equipment."
"Three units of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were also active and they have been asked to be ready for immediate help in case of an emergency," the BMC said.
The civic body has opened temporary shelters for stranded passengers and others at its schools.
Meanwhile, several roads like Mahapalika Marg and Colaba Causeway Road in south Mumbai were blocked and closed for traffic after trees collapsed due to high-velocity winds in the evening.
According to sources, several roads and areas in south Mumbai, which never witnessed water-logging in the past, were flooded and scores of vehicles, including BEST buses, were stranded on roads.
Many motorists abandoned their vehicles in flooded streets due to breakdown, which badly affected the traffic movements.
A BEST spokesperson said the civic body-run transport undertaking operated nearly 90 buses from outside various railway stations for various parts of the city.
He, however, said no BEST bus suffered any major damage due to collapse of trees, but several breakdown of buses were reported.
Several videos of rain havoc in Mumbai went viral on social media on Wednesday, showing floodwater inside shops, building compounds and slums.
Meanwhile, the BMC said the Vihar lake, one of the reservoirs supplying water to Mumbai, overflowed on Wednesday at 10 pm due to incessant rains in its catchment areas since Tuesday.
The lake has water capacity of 26,968 million litres.
According to the BMC spokesperson, last year the lake had overflowed on July 31, 2019.
Vihar is the second lake after Tulsi which has overflowed.
Mumbai gets water from seven dams.