Torrential rains in Mumbai, Maharashtra bring farmers joy

Mumbai: After a lull of three days, Mumbai and large parts of Maharashtra experienced incessant torrential rains since early Monday, throwing normal life out of gear, even as five people were killed in a wall collapse incident in Amravati, officials said.Some parts of the city received between four to eight centimetres of rains since Monday morning, raising hopes that the water deficit would be checked this year.Several low-lying areas in the city and suburbs were either waterlogged or flooded, delaying vehicular movement and creating massive traffic snarls on both the national highways and other major roads.Water logging was reported from parts of Borivli, Kandivli, Jogeshwari, Andheri, Santacruz, Bhandup, Sion, Byculla and some areas in Dadar, Worli, Goregaon and Kurla experienced flooding.Though suburban train services were disrupted on the Western Railway, Central Railway and Harbour Line with average 10-20 minutes delays, hitting office-goers and students.[caption id="attachment_442054" align="alignleft" width="380"] Reuters[/caption]Elsewhere in the state, most districts of the coastal Konkan, eastern districts of Vidarbha, northern parts of the state, Marathwada and western Maharasthra were lashed with heavy rains since this morning, spelling cheers for the water-starved farming community.Torrential downpour in Thane's major towns like Kalyan, Dombivli, Vasai, Virar, Palghar, Dahanu led to flooding on the roads with vehicular movements virtually crippled for hours.As a precautionary measure, some schools in the district were closed early to enable students reach their homes safely.Farmers in the parched districts of Marathwada were happy as the region was lashed with rains after a gap of over three weeks and earnestly resumed their farming activities.In a rain-related tragedy, five people were killed and another four injured when the wall of a Lord Krishna temple crashed at Kaundinyapur village, Amravati district of eastern Maharashtra.The incident occurred Sunday evening and the bodies of the victims were removed from the debris early Monday.The weather bureau has forecast similar heavy to very heavy rains over Mumbai and other parts of the state for the next two days.IANS