The Hindu Business Line : Cyclone skips Mumbai, but Govt takes no chances

Mumbai, Nov. 11 Cyclone Phyan may have bypassed Mumbai, but it had the city on edge all day. With the cloud-burst and flooding of the city about four years ago, still a recent memory, the Maharashtra Government took no chances on the latest cyclone alerts.

Offices and educational institutions were closed half-day, in case the weather worsened. Rains also washed out the seventh match of the one-day internationals between India and Australia, without a single ball being bowled. And transportation to and from the city saw delays and disruptions because of the inclement weather.

Though “Phyan” has crossed without unleashing its fury on the city, an India Meterological Department (IMD) official told Business Line, the cyclone would weaken into a deep depression over the next six hours. It would move in a North/ North East direction and parts of Maharashtra and adjoining Gujarat would still face rains and gusty winds, he said. The city’s forecast for Thursday was intermittent rains, heavy to very heavy rainfall and strong winds.

Markets surge

The stock markets, though, did not have a rainy day, with the Sensex going up 409 points, to close at 16,849. The Nifty zoomed 2.5 per cent to close at 5003.95. Brokers remained in their offices, as the markets were open, a market participant said.

Ms Anita Gandhi at Arihant Capital Markets, who was on her way to a seminar organised by the NSE at 5 p.m. said that people left from offices because of the constant television reports and messages from traffic police. Bank of India and ICICI Bank, who have their head offices in Bandra Kurla Complex, also let their employees leave early following the government diktat.

Delays

Mumbai’s Churchgate station was like a regular rush hour even during the early evening, because of people rushing home and jostling to get into crowded trains. Operations at Western Railways remained normal and four additional trains were put in service between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to clear passenger rush after the State Government ordered the city to shut down.

Central Railways that operates Central and Harbour lines had also put in 12 additional trains (up and down) to assist passengers on Central line. “The operations on both the lines were running as per schedule,” said a spokesperson for Central Railways.

Operations at Mumbai’s Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport remained affected due to the weather disturbances. Earlier in the day, domestic flight schedules went awry, as flights departed on an average of an hour to two hours late and arrivals were late by around 15 minutes. The delay in departures and arrivals had also come down to 15 minutes in the evening, officials said.

Flights cancelled

Airlines combined and cancelled some flights by the evening. Indian Airlines combined two flights coming from Delhi and two flights going to Delhi into one each. Kingfisher Airlines cancelled two flights (to and fro) Aurangabad and two flights (to and fro) to Delhi. Jet Airways combined four flights during the day and three arrivals and two departing flights were cancelled, officials said.

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