Four college girls drowned at Pandavkada waterfalls near Kharghar town of Navi Mumbai, even as heavy rain crippled normal life in the metropolis and the neighbouring Thane and Palghar districts.
Three second year B. Com students from Nerul-based SIES College of Arts, Commerce and Science — identified as Neha Dama, Aarti Nair and Shweta Nand — paid heavy price for bunking their lectures to undertake a picnic to the Pandavakada Waterfalls near Khargar town where they drowned in the morning. The bodies of three deceased students were recovered later in the day.
Till the evening, the local fire brigade personnel were searching for the body of the fourth girl identified as one Sneha Jain, who is also believed to have drowned at the same spot. Sneha was not from the same college.
The local authorities have banned the picnickers from visiting the Pandavakada waterfalls, which has been listed as a dangerous picnic spot. At least a dozen students had drowned here in 2010, while another four students had been swept away in 2005.
The affected college management confirmed
that three girl students were missing from the classes which started as usual at 7.30 am on Saturday.
Meanwhile, another wet weekend beckoned Mumbaikars and their counterparts in the neighbouring areas, as incessant rains that lashed the metropolis since Friday night forced lakhs of people to stay indoors. Thousands of others who had ventured out to their offices in the morning, were stranded at various places owing to dislocation of suburban train services.
Owing to water-logging at various places, including Sion, and Thane, and failure of signal system at Kurla railway station, the suburban train services on the main line of of the Central Railway ground to a halt around 2 pm, while the services on the Harbour line were thrown completely out of gear all through the day.
The suburban services on the Western Railway were running 20 to 30 minutes behind the schedule.
The island city of Mumbai recorded a rainfall of 53.6 mm during 24 hours ending at 8.30 am, while it received 40.11 mm during the day. However, the suburbs bore the maximum brunt of the rains, with Santa Cruz recording a rainfall of 133.9 mm, while it registered 72.62 mm rain between 8.30 am and 8.30 pm on Saturday.
The Regional Meteorological Centre, Mumbai has forecast “heavy to very heavy rains” in the city and suburbs during the next 48 hours.
The rainfall was so heavy that water-logging was reported from many areas in Mumbai, including Dadar, Kings Circle, Sion, Vikhroli, Ghatkopar, Kurla, Bhandup, Mulund, Borivali, Kandivali, Andheri, Santacruz, Khar, Bandra, Matunga and Parel. As a result, there were traffic jams at many places.
Similarly, subways at Santa Cruz, Andheri, Kandivali, Malad and Dahisar were inundated, affecting badly traffic movement in the east-west directions. Vehicles and two-wheelers were marooned in flood waters at many places.
Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, the Maharashtra government, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and local authorities –had ordered closures of schools and colleges in Mumbai and the neighbouring districts of Thane and Palghar on Saturday.
The incessant rains affected the flight operations at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. Though no major cancellations were report, the flights were operating around 30 minutes behind the schedule.
Meanwhile, a fire broke out in Navrang Building in the congested Abdul Rehman Street in south Mumbai. The fire brigade personnel rescued four persons, including three women, who were trapped in the fire and smoke in the building. The officials suspected that short circuit might have triggered the blaze.
Three firemen — CS Gupta, A B Pawar and Anil Mhatre — were hospitalised after they suffered from suffocation during the blaze extinguishing operation.
