By IANS
Mumbai : After a short breather in the morning, parts of Mumbai again received heavy rains Sunday. But even as life began returning to normalcy, the weatherman has predicted more and more showers.
With little overnight rains, Mumbaikars heaved a sigh of relief after a miserable Saturday when India's financial capital was flooded and hundreds of thousands spent the day either in their homes or wading through knee-deep water.
On Sunday, although the city got 288 mm of rain, on top of Saturday's paralysing rain, most roads were again passable.
The perennially busy suburban railway network, the city's lifeline, resumed its services. However, trains on the central and the harbour lines were running late by about 20 minutes.
Both international and domestic flights also returned to their original schedules and water had been drained out from the roads leading to the airports, officials said.
Still, municipal workers worked frantically to drain out water in many flooded areas. And thousands were out on the streets to buy milk and essential commodities after shops opened all over the city.
"With no overnight rain, it was possible for us to drain out water from several waterlogged areas. But if there are more rains, the situation will again be dicey," said a senior official at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which has been widely blamed for the misery of Saturday.
"We are back to normal," said Ramu Venkataraman, an executive at Hero Honda company. "The traffic on the streets is normal for a Sunday."
A spokesman for the Central Railway, however, said that some portions of rail track were still submerged.
Traffic on the Western Expressway that connects Mumbai to the western suburbs resumed Sunday after a day of disruption.
"It has started to pour again. Thankfully, markets are open and we could stock up essential commodities," said Shikha Mukerjee, a housewife in Navi Mumbai.
"In the last two days it was practically impossible to venture onto the streets and more over most of the shops had remained closed. Recurring power failure has added to our woes."
Saturday's downpour inundated several areas particularly the low-lying ones in central Mumbai as well as the western and eastern suburbs. The torrential rains rekindled the ghosts of July 26, 2005 when the deluge claimed 400 lives.
Joel Fernandez, a resident of Chembur, which was under knee-deep water Saturday, said he was worried because the authorities have predicted more rains in the coming days.
"We fear for the worst. Our area gets inundated every year. The water is only expected to rise," said Kiran Dongaonkar, a resident of Wadhala in central suburban Mumbai. "How do we commute if it starts pouring again?"
The weekend trains rekindled the ghosts of the July 2005 deluge that claimed about 400 lives. This time the authorities seemed to be better prepared, at least in the management of road traffic.