Mumbai: Owing to heavy rain on Monday continuing over the night, the city and its neighbouring areas were brought to a standstill, flooding streets and badly affecting life.The rainfall led to traffic snarls as many roads and streets in the metropolis were flooded and people were seen wading through knee-deep water.A 43-year-old woman riding a motorcycle as a pillion was crushed by a bus after the vehicle hit a water-logged pothole in adjoining Thane district of Maharashtra. The incident was captured on CCTV cameras.The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy to very heavy rain till Thursday.Train services hitOn Monday, nearly 90 trains on the suburban network were cancelled. Suburban services of the western railway were halted on Tuesday, a senior railway official said. The official said that services between Churchgate and Borivili were, however, normal.“Considering the passengers’ safety, train services have been stopped till the water level on the track recedes,” he said. He said that de-watering efforts are being made.However, the central railway’s suburban services are running normally at all its corridors. “Trains are running normally on central railway’s all three lines – main, harbour and trans-harbour,” the central railway tweeted.Due to water-logging, around 300 people were stuck in their homes in Vasai town of the adjoining Palghar district. However, they refused to be evacuated even as the water level receded, a district information officer said.The residents preferred to stay in their homes instead of relocating to some temporary shelter in response to the district administration’s appeal for evacuation, he said.Some of them accepted food packets given by the administration. “We have kept an ambulance near their homes as a precautionary measure,” the officer said.Thane: Suburban trains chug on water-logged tracks during heavy rainfall, in Mumbai on July 09, 2018. Credit: PTIHighest rainfall during current monsoon seasonThe downpour of 170 mm (recorded in Colaba observatory for the Mumbai city) from 8:30 am on Sunday till 8:30 am on Monday was the highest in a 24-hour period during the current monsoon season, the Meteorological Department’s deputy director general, K.S. Hosalikar, said.From 8.30 am to 5.30 pm on Monday, the Colaba observatory recorded a rainfall of 104.8 mm.The Santacruz observatory, which records rainfall for suburban Mumbai, reported downpour of 122 mm during the 24-hour period from 8.30 am on Sunday and 75 mm from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm on Monday.According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the metropolis has received 54% of its average monsoon season rainfall just in the last 20 days.The rainfall slowed down the pace of the financial capital, which is heavily dependent on local train services.Though the intensity of showers receded as the day progressed on Monday, it took longer time for the city traffic to revert to its pace. Vehicles on many roads were seen crawling because of the rainfall and low visibility. Potholes compounded the problem.Schools and colleges shutSchools and colleges were shut in Mumbai, while the Mumbai University said examinations will be rescheduled for students who could not appear for them on Monday.There was heavy water-logging in Mumbai’s central areas of Kurla, Sion and Dadar. Mira Road (in adjoining Thane district), Nallasopara and Vasai (in Palghar district) were largely affected due to the heavy showers.Amid torrential rain, the Tulsi lake, which supplies water to the people of the city, started overflowing on Monday.Mumbai’s pervasive Dabbawalas, the tiffin careers of the city, have suspended their work across the city on Tuesday.“We did not collect the tiffins today because of water logging. Our people find it hard to wade through knee-deep water on their cycles,” Mumbai Dabbawalas Association’s spokesperson Subhash Talekar said.Long distance trains haltedOn Monday, some long-distance trains to Gujarat and northern states were halted at Borivali as tracks near Nallasopara and Virar were submerged. The trains left after a delay of about one hour, a spokesperson of the western railway said.Many government and semi-government establishments curtailed their office hours to allow their employees to leave for home early.Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) buses were slightly delayed, but no service was cancelled or suspended, a BEST spokesperson said.Visibility at the Mumbai airport was “not very good” but flights were operating according to schedule, a Met official said, adding no warning has been issued for the aviation sector so far.The city’s neighbouring areas got even more rain and roads were submerged.Hosalikar said the intensity of rains in the city’s neighbouring districts of Palghar, Raigad and some parts in the south Konkan region was even more “vigorous” with these areas receiving 200 mm rainfall since Sunday.(PTI)