By IANS,
Mumbai : Battered by heavy rains for four days, Mumbai struggled to return to normalcy Tuesday, ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr Wednesday and the 10-day Ganeshotsav starting the next day.
Though intermittent but heavy rains continued to lash the metropolis since Monday night, there were no fresh flooding of streets and neighbourhoods, according to officials.
Road traffic was returning to its original self. But vehicles crawled on some roads and patches of the two highways running through the city.
Huge potholes have developed on the Eastern Express Highway due to heavy rains.
Schools were allowed to remain shut even Tuesday.
Spells of heavy rains continued even in the coastal, northern, eastern and central parts of Maharashtra since Monday night.
A major landslide blocked Konkan Railway tracks near Pomendi, around 225 km south of Mumbai, bringing train services to a halt.
Thousands of Mumbaikars, rushing home to their villages or towns in the coastal Konkan region comprising Thane, Mumbai, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts, were forced to take to road transport.
The rains hit traders and businessmen hoping to cash in on the twin festivals of Eid-Ul-Fitr and Ganeshotsav as shoppers stayed away.
“Usually, the week before Ganeshotsav or Eid, we notch up around 75 percent of the season’s sale. But this year it is barely 20 percent,” rued Ajay Vora, manager with a leading chain of departmental stores.