Mumbai, August 03, 2007 - Heavy rains lashed the city since wee hours Friday, resulting in severe disruptions in rail, road and air traffic, causing inconvenience to regular commuters and office goers proceeding to their work places.

Train services on the central railway have been halted following heavy water logging on the tracks from Parel to Masjid stations in South Mumbai stranding a sizeable chunk of the population from reaching their destination, as per zeenews.com. 

Water levels are also steadily rising on the tracks near the Kurla and Sion stations which experience this problem regularly, railway police said.

On the western railway, suburban services are running late by 10 to 15 minutes, they added.

All the low lying spots in the city like the Hindmata Junction at Parel, Matunga, Kings Circle have been inundated with water disrupting smooth traffic movement on roads, traffic police said.

Besides, air traffic was also affected due to low visibility at the airports on account of the heavy downpour, delaying most of the in and out flights by 15 minutes, an airport spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the meteorological office said heavy rainfall was reported from the city and suburbs from 0230 hours today and has forecasted frequent spells of rain or thundershowers with the possibility of strong and gutsy winds.

The Colaba observatory (in the city) has recorded 104.2 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours while 82.6 mm was recorded in Santa Cruz, a Met official said, adding that major rainfall was recorded after 0230 hours.

Senior Met officers will hold a meeting around 1230 hours to study the latest data and issue warnings accordingly, he said.

Major disruptions have been experienced in the south and central parts of the city due to heavy rainfall, but the suburbs to the east, north and west were not affected much, he added.