Mumbai:

Several areas in Mumbai have been flooded after extremely heavy rain in through the night. The financial capital and a few neighbouring district are on red alert for “extremely heavy rainfall” today and tomorrow.

Apart from Mumbai, the alert has been issued for Thane, Pune, Raigad and Ratnagiri districts of Maharashtra.

Mumbai’s civic body has said that except for essential services, all other offices in the city will be closed today.

With a high tide expected at 12:47 pm, the civic body has alerted to all concerned departments and also to people to not go near any beach or low-lying areas. Tides waves of around 4.51 meters have been predicted due to the heavy rain.

Roads in areas such as Goregaon, King Circle, Hindmata, Dadar, Shivaji Chowk, Shell Colony, Kurla ST Depot, Bandra Talkies, Sion Road 24 have been flooded.

Mumbai city received 230.06 mm rain from 8 am on Monday to 6 am today. The eastern and western suburbs recorded 162.83 and 162.28 mm of rain respectively.

The Met office has also warned of strong winds off north Maharashtra coast today, tomorrow and on Thursday.

Mumbai’s streets regularly flood during the monsoon, which runs from June until September or October, and which provides India with most of its annual rainfall.

Almost every monsoon, Mumbai struggles to cope with the chaos caused by the rain. The suburban trains – the city’s lifeline – are affected and low-lying areas get flooded.