Maha’s double-engine breakdown: 10 dead, 100s displaced, monorails suspended with 700-plus inside

UPDATE: A PTI report at 11:40 p.m. of 19 August now reports over 700 passengers had to be rescued from two stranded monorail trains, one of which had begun to tilt off its rail. The entire rescue operations took three-and-a-half hours, per the Mumbai fire chief. (The article below was first published at 10:16 p.m.)

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Per PTI’s last report at 9:45 p.m. on 19 August, Tuesday, at least 442 passengers had been rescued from the Mumbai monorail suspended between Mysore Colony and Bhakti Park stations — one of whom had had to be hospitalised. The train, which suddenly lost power, was said to be overcrowded, and passengers within had been stuck since around 6:15 p.m. — and it was an hour before rescue operations even commenced. Many complained of feeling suffocated and panicky, with the AC not working without power either.

Many had boarded it due to the closure of the Harbour Line of the metro amid heavy rain and high tide.

While early reports said only about a 100 people were within, later reports by leading news agencies suggested figures closer to a shocking 500, with the city having largely ground to a halt in terms of the usual daily commutes of office-goers and students.

“Some were struggling to breathe, and tried to break the window. A couple of passengers fainted,” said one passenger after he was rescued by one of the three snorkel cranes deployed. The window glass did have to be cut out. The one passenger who had to be hospitalised, a 20-year-old woman, is reportedly in a stable condition now.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis promised an 'inquiry', for what good it may do, as Mumbai braces for two more days of heavy rain ahead, having already weathered two now.

Congress MLA Aslam Shaikh described the situation as "shocking".

Meanwhile, across Maharashtra, the death toll from rain-related incidents rose to 10 per various media reports, though figures have ben inconsistent — and hundreds have been displaced as the sea came in as well.

The weather department, meanwhile, issued warnings for more rain across Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra. Chief minister Fadnavis acknowledged the next 48 hours would be crucial for Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts, which remain on high alert, per PTI reports. The Pune district administration also issued a red alert in anticipation of heavy rainfall along the ghats, with strong winds. 

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) declared a holiday for all government and semi-government offices and also advised private firms to encourage employees to work from home, except staff in essential and emergency services. Schools and colleges have yet to reopen since the weekend.

The Mithi river crossed the danger mark, causing waterlogging in the densely populated areas of Kurla and Sakinaka nearby, necessitating evacuations, as well as flooding railway tracks and areas near the Mumbai airport — where, incidentally, a parked IndiGo bus burst into flames, adding to the day's chaos.

In Kolhapur, the Radhanagari dam had to release 11,500 cusecs of water into the Bhogavati River, causing the Panchganga to flow above the danger mark for the fifth time this monsoon season.

In the Konkan region, the Kundalika and Savitri rivers have also swelled beyond their danger marks. Further intense rainfall is still expected here.

Meanwhile, Marathwada and Vidarbha are currently on orange alert, but hopefully should fade to yellow later in the week, per the IMD.

For today, Nanded was the worst hit, as Mumbai struggled to cope with over 500 mm of rain over two days.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray proclaimed in an X post, "Truly a government blessed by the vote chori commission and not the people."

His post listed the monorail incident, the flooding of the Mumbai airport earlier in the day and "new flooding spots" near new 'infrastructure', citing them as examples of the absence of governance in the city. He also wondered at the lack of planning despite the dire weather alerts.