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The heaviest downpour since 2005 inundated Mumbai, delaying trains and planes and spurring the city administration to declare a holiday.
Flights to Mumbai were delayed, diverted or canceled after a Boeing Co. 737 aircraft operated by SpiceJet Ltd. overshot the runway amid heavy rains. Precipitation over the past 24 hours was the second-heaviest on record, said KS Hosalikar, deputy director general at the India Meteorological Departments Mumbai centre.
It is very unsafe to go out, Mahesh Palawat, a vice president of meteorology and climate change at Weather forecaster Skymet, said in a Twitter post. Nothing is important than your safety, he said, adding that Mumbai and suburbs saw rainfall of as much as 500 millimeters in the last 24 hours.
Read also: 12 killed in Mumbai wall collapse after overnight downpour: Officials
Disruptions due to seasonal rains, which also affected train services, are a regular occurrence in Mumbai, as authorities in the mega city of 18 million grapple with crumbling infrastructure. Sixteen people were killed in a suburb of the city when a wall collapsed, according to a television report. The city’s travails highlight the need for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accelerate the $1.44 trillion his party pledged to build roads, railways and other infrastructure in Asia’s third-largest economy.
Flight cancellations
At least 54 flights were diverted since the SpiceJet incident late on Monday, a spokeswoman for the airport said, and flight tracking website Flightradar24.com showed at least 57 cancellations to and from India’s second busiest airport on Tuesday morning. Vistara, the local affiliate of Singapore Airlines Ltd., cancelled at least 10 flights, while market leader IndiGo and SpiceJet warned of delays and diversions in Mumbai, home to the the nations two largest stock exchanges and the central bank.
About 1,000 people were evacuated from an area in Mumbai as a river started to overflow, the city councils Monsoon helpline said on Twitter. The Bombay Stock Exchange will, however, stay open on Tuesday, a spokesman said.
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