Heavy rains in India’s Mumbai flood roads, shut schools, cancel flights: ‘tough for people’

Heavy rains flooded roads and railway lines on Monday 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 300mm (11.8 inches) of rain lashed the city of 12 million in the six hours through 7:00am, civic officials said in a statement. More heavy showers were forecast, accompanying a high tide of 4.40 metres (14 feet) 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 said.

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 2 million 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