Red Alert Issued for Mumbai & Nearby Areas, IMD Predicts Heavy Showers in Goa & Konkan till Thursday

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday said the monsoon is active in its "vigorous phase" over the Konkan coast and the adjoining areas of the west coasts as well as the eastern parts of India covering Odisha and West Bengal. The weather department has predicted widespread rainfall with scattered heavy to very heavy falls and isolated extremely heavy falls over Konkan and Goa (including Mumbai) till August 6 and over central Maharashtra (ghat areas) till August 5 and reduce after it.

With heavy showers crippling Maharashtra's Mumbai and its neighbouring areas, a 'red' alert has been issued for "extremely heavy" rainfall in the city for Wednesday. The alert was issued for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Palghar, Raigad, Pune, Ahmednagar and Nashik districts. While the warning for Mumbai is just for Wednesday, that for Thane, Palghar and Nashik is for both Wednesday and Thursday.

Local train services were suspended on some routes in Mumbai and suburbs on Tuesday morning due to water-logging.

A landslide on the Western Express Highway in suburban Kandivali affected vehicular movement from the western suburbs towards south Mumbai.

The Bombay High Court adjourned its virtual hearings as many staff members could not reach the court.

The Maharashtra government announced a holiday for all its offices in Mumbai city and suburbs on Tuesday.

Two fishermen went missing while 11 were rescued after a boat got caught in heavy rains and capsized some 12 kilometres off Gorai beach in north Mumbai.

A 35-year-old woman and her two children were swept away in a swollen nullah in suburban Santacruz. A person died of electrocution after accidentally touching an electric pole in Thane city following heavy overnight rains.

Heavy rain in other states

There was heavy rainfall in parts of Kerala, Odisha and West Bengal as well, and the weather department predicted fairly widespread downpour in Gujarat in the next three days.

In Tamil Nadu, over 200 people had to be evacuated in Nilgiris district following heavy downpour since Monday, and in the northern part of the country, 16 districts were affected by floods in Uttar Pradesh and rescue efforts were underway in rain-hit areas of Uttarakhand.

The death toll due to the floods in Bihar climbed to 19 on Tuesday as 63.60 lakh people are affected across 16 districts. Nearly seven lakh more have fallen victim to inundation since Monday.

In Gujarat, the IMD has predicted fairly widespread rainfall, with heavy to very heavy showers in isolated places between Tuesday and Friday. Several parts of Saurashtra, especially Gir Somnath, Junagadh, Amreli and Rajkot districts, received heavy rainfall during the day. The weather office asked fishermen to not venture into the Arabian Sea along the south and north Gujarat coasts till August 8.

In Kerala, heavy rains lashed Idukki, Wayanad and Palakkad districts as weathermen predicted widespread showers in the central and northern parts this week. The IMD has also issued orange alerts for Idukki and five northern districts of Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod for this week. Other districts have been issued the yellow alert for the same time period.

In Tamil Nadu, the weather office has predicted heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places in the Nilgiris and Coimbatore districts between August 4 and 8.

(With inputs from PTI)