450 feared dead in India's heaviest rains, Mumbai at standstill
07-28-2005, 08h27
MUMBAI (AFP)

Indian commuters walk through floodwaters past stranded motor vehicles after heavy torrential rains paralysed the city of Mumbai. At least 450 people have died in landslides and building collapses in western India following the heaviest rains ever recorded in the country
(AFP)

Landslides and building collapses caused by the heaviest rains ever recorded in India have left around 450 people feared dead and brought the financial capital Mumbai to a standstill.

Weather officials predicted more heavy rains on the way for the city of 15 million, where schools, banks, stock markets and airports were closed and public transport barely operating.

Aerial pictures of Mumbai showed large parts of Mumbai marooned in debris-laden water.

Long queues of cars, trucks and other vehicles were seen stranded on main arteries and highways linking different parts of Mumbai.

Eighty-eight deaths were reported from Mumbai, Maharashtra state deputy chief minister R.R. Patil told AFP.

But the heaviest casualties occurred in a remote village in Raighad district of the rain-lashed state, where at least 100 people from 20 families were feared killed by a landslide, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

The waves of mud flattened houses in Jui village, 170 kilometers (105 miles) south of Mumbai, on Monday but news of the tragedy reached authorities only three days later, the report said.

Indian army troops reached the village dominated by rice farmers and were supervising rescue and relief operations but "it is difficult to remove the debris without machines," said an officer.

Maharashtra state police control room said 157 people had died in wall collapses, landslides and drownings in other parts of the state, which has been drenched by monsoon rains since Monday.

"Another 200 people are feared dead across the state," said an official in the control room, asking to remain anonymous.

Authorities were air dropping food and water to stranded residents of Mumbai and Raighad, the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak said.

The city's weather bureau said that Mumbai received 944.2 millimeters (37.1 inches) of rainfall in a 24-hour period ending mid-morning Wednesday, the most rainfall ever recorded in a single day in India and beating a record which has stood since July 1910.

But there was some good news for the state's beleaguered residents with some transport and communication links restored.

In Mumbai, services of the suburban trains -- the lifeline of the city -- were limping back to normal, a railway official told Aaj Tak.

A spokesman for India's international carrier Air India said authorities were hoping to restore services later Thursday at Mumbai's domestic and international airports, among the busiest in the country.

Power supplies that had been cut as a precaution as the rains flooded streets waist-high were also restored to some parts of the city, news reports said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was scheduled Thursday to tour areas devastated by the rains and pledged federal government help to recover from the deluge as navy boats were used to rescue people in badly flooded areas.

The annual monsoon rains which sweep the subcontinent from June to September routinely kill hundreds of people in India and cause widespread devastation.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil told parliament Wednesday that since the start of the monsoon season in early June, 633 people have lost their lives in floods or landslides.

About 76,000 animals have also been killed, and 700,000 hectares (1.72 million acres) of land and 283,000 houses have been damaged.

He said 5.6 million people in 131 districts and 16,000 villages have been affected by the floods.

A New Delhi-based industry body, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry, estimated the damages in Maharashtra at 10 billion rupees or 232 million dollars.

AFP