Mumbai: Mumbai remained under an orange alert for the third consecutive day on Thursday, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasting heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places along with gusty winds of 60-70 kmph. Neighbouring Palghar continued under a red alert, while Thane also remained under an orange alert.For Friday, a yellow alert is in place for Mumbai, Thane and Palghar, forecasting heavy rains at isolated places.Meanwhile, heavy downpour in Kalyan, Thane district, submerged key bridges on Thursday, severely impacting traffic and connectivity in the region, an official said on Thursday. Kalyan Tehsildar Vikas Garudkar said that the Runde bridge on the Titwala-Falegaon road went completely underwater around 8 am due to rising water levels in the Kalu River.“As a precautionary measure to ensure public safety, the Runde bridge has been completely closed to all vehicular traffic,” Tehsildar Garudkar stated. The Walkas-Vehare bridge in the taluka has also been rendered impassable and shut to traffic for the past five hours following heavy rains, the official added.In Mumbai, however, despite the orange warning, rainfall was moderate compared with other parts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). In the 24 hours ending 8.30 am Thursday, the IMD’s Santacruz observatory recorded 63.6 mm of rainfall, while Colaba received 22.2 mm. Thane recorded 99.32 mm and Navi Mumbai 56.87 mm.The heaviest rainfall was reported from Palghar district, where several areas received triple-digit rainfall. Jawhar topped the chart with 274 mm, followed by Palghar (254 mm), Wada (166 mm) and Vasai (102 mm) in the 24 hours ending Thursday morning. The IMD has forecast extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places in the district.Within Vasai taluka, Agashi (Virar West) recorded 123 mm, Bolinj (Virar) 104 mm, Kaman 101 mm, Manikpur (Vasai West) 98 mm, Mandvi 74 mm and Pelhar (Vasai East) 70 mm.The fresh spell of rainfall significantly boosted water reserves in the seven lakes supplying Mumbai, with live storage rising to 70% of capacity, an increase of nearly 8 percentage points in a single day.Modak Sagar became the fourth lake to overflow this monsoon after reaching its full supply level at around 2 am on Thursday. The lake supplies 440 million litres per day (MLD) of water to Mumbai.Mumbai receives 4,100 million litres of water per day (MLD) from seven lakes—Modak Sagar, Bhatsa, Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Vihar, Tulsi and Tansa. To meet the city’s annual water requirement, the reservoirs need a combined storage of 14.47 lakh million litres.
