Mumbai: At least 16 people were killed and over 80 injured in separate incidents of wall collapse in Mumbai today following heavy downpour, with authorities declaring a public holiday in the city that was crawling due to waterlogging on roads and rail tracks.
NDRF officials said that around 2 am a compound wall in Pimpripada area of Malad east collapsed and people living in shanties adjacent to the wall got trapped under the debris.
“Our team of National Disaster Response Force along with sniffer dog reached the site of the incident immediately after receiving the information. Besides, a team of fire brigade and local police also reached the spot and took control of the situation,” a senior NDRF official said.
16 people were killed in the wall collapse incident.
Another official said, “34 people have been admitted to the Jogeshwari Trauma Hospital after a wall collapse in Malad area of Mumbai. Another 51 were injured in a wall collapse in Kurar village, and they have been taken to Kandivali-based Shatabdi Hospital.”
Authorities have declared Tuesday as a public holiday in Mumbai as the Indian Meteorological Department has forecast heavy rains.
“In the wake of the extreme heavy rainfall forecast by the IMD, the government of Maharashtra has declared a public holiday on 2 July as a precautionary measure for Mumbai city and its citizens,” a civic official said.
Students, who were supposed to come to Mumbai today for their documents verification for the undergraduate admission in MBBS, BDS and BAMS courses, have now been given the date of 5 July, for the same procedure.
The CET cell here in Mumbai Tuesday has appealed to students who could not complete their document verification on Monday due to heavy rainfall, to submit their documents on 5 July here.
The Mumbai University has also postponed the exam of B.Sc Computer Science for first and second year students due to heavy rains, said an official of the Mumbai University.
“The schedule of the cancelled examinations will be announced soon. Today, no examination of Mumbai University will be held due to heavy rainfall,” Higher and Technical Education Minister Vinod Tawde said.
The Central Railway has also decided to run local trains in limited corridors due to water logging on the railway tracks.
“Trains will run in CSMT-Andheri-Goregaon section in harbour line. Vashi to Panvel in harbour line. Thane to Vashi and Panvel in trans harbour line. CSMT to Thane Karjat and Khopoli sections,” Sunil Udasi, the chief spokesperson of the Central Railway, said.
He said the Central Railway with the help of RPF jawans rescued thousands of passengers stranded in midnight local trains and served them tea, biscuits and other edible items at stations.
A senior official of the Western Railway said its suburban services are running between Churchgate and Virar even if the frequency was less.
“Frequency may be less between Vasai Road and Virar due to receipt of outstation trains,” he said.
“Suburban local train service is also badly affected as low lying areas were submerged. The signalling system became dysfunctional, forcing railway administration to suspend local as well as long distance train movement,” said an official from Central Railways.
More than 20 long distance trains in central and western railways have either been cancelled or short terminated at a station near Mumbai due to heavy rainfall, the official said.
Power utility companies have also suspended the supply in some suburban areas of Mumbai as a precautionary measure.
The heavy downpour also forced Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to cancel his scheduled ground breaking function of construction of a new building for MLAs.