A part of a river bridge linking Murbad to Kalyan in Maharashtra's Thane district got washed way in the early hours of Sunday due to heavy downpour in the region, an official said.
Murbad Tehsildar Amol Kadam told PTI that a part of a bridge on the Ulhas river in Rayta village got washed away and stretches of the road were damaged in heavy rains, affecting traffic on the highway linking Mumbai to Ahmedabad in neighbouring Gujarat.
"Traffic on the route has been suspended till further orders. The Ulhas river has been overflowing since the past two days and has caused flooding in Badlapur, Titwala and Kalyan," he said.
Kadam informed that 370 houses have got submerged in the floods, and rescue teams working overnight shifted families to higher places.
This news comes a day after a train was halted near Vangani in Thane district due to flooding on tracks following heavy rains leaving over a 1000 passengers stranded for more than 17 hours. All the passengers aboard the Kolhapur-bound train were rescued in a multi-agency operation afterwards.
India Meteorological Department, however, predicted that there will be no relief from downpour for Mumbai in the coming days.
It has predicted "heavy to very heavy" rainfall at a few places in Mumbai over the next 24 hours.
Mumbai and its suburbs, Thane, Palghar and Pune have received rainfall in excess of the normal average between June 1 and July 24, it said.
The Colaba and Santacruz observatories have recorded 44.2 millimetres and 27.7 mm rainfall respectively in the 24-hour period starting on Saturday at 8.30 am, an IMD official said on Sunday.
The IMD forecast said there would be fairly widespread rainfall across Maharashtra on Sunday, which will be especially beneficial for Marathwada and Vidarbha, both regions having got deficit rainfall so far this season.
(input from agencies)
