Heavy rains in Mumbai hit transport and shut schools

Heavy rains flooded roads and railway lines yesterday in India’s financial capital Mumbai, disrupting flights and forcing the closure of schools and colleges.
Just ahead of the morning rush hour, more than 11.8 inches of rain lashed the city of 12mn in the six hours through 7am (0130 GMT), civic officials said in a statement. More heavy showers were forecast, accompanying a high tide of 14ft in the coastal city.
“There is heavy traffic on the roads and rail lines too have been affected,” Eknath Shinde, chief minister of Maharashtra, the western state whose capital is Mumbai, said on X, urging people to stay indoors.
Mumbai commuters waded through knee-deep water that partially submerged vehicles in many areas, while traffic clogged the city’s Eastern and Western Express highways.
Water on the tracks forced railway authorities to cancel some long-distance trains. Television images showed some suburban passenger trains halted on inundated lines and some commuters walking on tracks to reach their destination.
“Mumbai and rain-induced flooding is an annual occurrence. My BMW car is stuck in the floodwater,” Anil Bore told ANI news agency.
India’s seasonal monsoon rains, which start at the end of May, bring respite after a scorching summer but have also triggered widespread flooding in recent years.
In Bihar state in the east, separate cases of lightning strikes killed 12 people, taking the toll from such incidents to 20 since the start of July, a state government official said.
More than 2mn people have also been affected by rivers flooding in northeastern Assam, where the Kaziranga National Park, home to the rare one-horned rhinoceros, was inundated. Six of the animals drowned, authorities said on Sunday.
Assam authorities said 66 people have died in floods and rain-related incidents since May.
Flooding has also affected 31 villages in Uttar Pradesh state on the Nepal border, the state government said.
Torrential monsoon rains have triggered floods and landslides in Nepal, where at least 11 people were killed.
In Bangladesh, more than 2mn people were affected by the third wave of flooding since May, with 300,000 stranded in the north, officials from the disaster management ministry said.