Title - Mumbai comes to a halt as heavy rains stop trains and traffic

Heavy rains continued to lash Mumbai and adjoining areas for the second day today, impacting movement of suburban trains and vehicular traffic and throwing normal life out of gear.Mumbai suburban railway, the city's lifeline, was in disarray with water overtopping the tracks at several places on the Western, Central and Harbour lines, railway sources said.Tracks have been flooded at several places including Chinchpokli, Vikroli, Sion and Masjid on Central and Harbour lines and several trains are running late.On Western line, suburban services have been suspended between Nallasopara and Virar, sources said.Waterlogging at several places including Dadar, Parel, Sion and Kandivali resulted in massive traffic snarls, hitting office goers badly.

Weatherman has forecast frequent spells of rain or showers over the next 48 hours.

While Mumbai city received 36.5 mm of rain, suburbs recorded 59.2 mm of rain till 2.30 pm.

Tulsi lake, one of the major reservoirs in the city has started overflowing.

A high tide measuring 4.26 metres has been predicted from 2.30 pm onwards and municipal authorities said the situation could worsen in the event of continued rainfall.

Heavy rains in parts of Gujarat, bordering Maharashtra, have resulted in disruption of railway traffic between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

"Due to very heavy rains in Valsad (Gujarat), the railway traffic has been affected as water logging on tracks and breaches on down line at a bridge between Atul & Pardi stations near Valsad has resulted in cancellation of 10 trains," a Western Railway release said.

Trains which have been cancelled included Surat-Mumbai Central-Flying Ranee Express, Mumbai Central-Ahmedabad Karnavati Express, and Mumbai Central-Ahmedabad Double Decker Express. Half-a-dozen trains have also been short terminated, the release said.