It was a case of high-stakes emergency for the city this morning. Relentful downpours have inundated low-lying areas and put a stop to local train services, while a red alert from the India Meteorological Department has left commuters with little but waterlogging at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus to worry about. According to officials, there is no end in sight for the weather.
Ground impact across Mumbai
The kind of downpour we have had over the last few hours has put parts of the city and its outer suburbs under, and the suburban rail has seen its share of delays and cancellations as a result. Rescue and drainage work has been made more of an ordeal in several of the lower zones that have gone under.
Roads in Andheri, Hindmata, the Milan Subway and Chembur, among others, have been shut to keep people out of harm’s way. There have also been reports of trees coming down in Marine Drive and elsewhere. This is all in the wake of an earlier round of bad weather that brought the western suburbs to a standstill.
The cost of that was an 11-year-old who was killed when a tree came down on a school bus in Chembur, with a number of other injuries. Since then, the message from those in charge has been to be very careful around any weak-looking trees or flooded seafronts.
Alerts and government response
Mumbai, Thane and some of Konkan are under a red alert for Sunday from the IMD, which means you can expect anything from heavy to very heavy rain. In a 7 p.m. notice on July 4, 2026, the department put the two cities on red and the rest of the Konkan and Pune on orange.
State leadership is making it clear that movement should be kept to a minimum. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said if you don’t have to go out, don’t. The NDRF, fire brigade and the like are on standby to answer any calls for help in short order.
Maharashtra’s Disaster Management Minister, Girish Mahajan, has made a similar appeal. ‘We have had over 200mm in 12 hours – I would call that very heavy for Mumbai,’ he put it. He noted that NDRF and SDRF are in the field, manholes are being watched and traffic is being put right.
Municipal action on flooding
BMC Commissioner Ashwini Bhide has 10,000 or so of his men working on a war footing to get the water out and things moving again. They have 448 pumps in the ground at trouble spots with seasoned operators to make sure they do their job.
Saturday saw no classes in Mumbai or Thane. If there is an emergency, the civic body wants to be the first to know, so one can reach out to the control room or the ward office for a hand.
Health and safety guidance
The BMC is telling people to stay in and steer clear of open manholes, downed power lines and any tree or pole that looks like a hazard. There is also the matter of leptospirosis to consider with the amount of standing water and rodents about, they say.
Where it makes sense medically, a 200 mg of doxycycline is a good precaution. Ritu Tawde, the Mayor, has been firm with anyone still at the Worli seafront: get out of there and don’t flout what the Corporation and police are saying.
For your own safety, here is what to do:
– Remain at home unless it is a must to be at work
– Keep off the seafront and any spot prone to flood
– Leave the manhole covers be
– Put in a call to the BMC on any hazards you see
– Make sure children are not in the water
Transport status and what to expect next
There was water at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Kurla on Saturday, July 4. As of Sunday morning, the rain is still with us in Mumbai, Thane and Pune, and with it come more accidents and the strain on city services that goes with them.
The IMD says don’t hold your breath for a break in the rain. The ghats in Konkan and the Pune district will have to deal with some of the heaviest and most persistent of it, and the odd landslide, while Pune is on a Yellow. If one is thinking of making a trip, it is best to put it off.
To avoid any more of what happened before, there is a word of caution for the tourists and the like: don’t go near the high-tide line. It is a simple matter of following the rules, staying off the wet and letting the teams do their work of clearing the roads and the water.
