August 19, 2025

Mumbai faced a monsoon magic show turned nightmare on Tuesday as the city soaked in a whopping 200 mm of rain in just 11 hours from 4 am to 3 pm, said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Can you imagine? This heavy downpour brought India’s financial capital to a slow crawl! The city gulped 37% of its usual August rain in just 54 hours from the morning of August 17 to Tuesday afternoon. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) isn’t done yet! It issued a "Red Nowcast Warning"—that means red alert—from 4 pm onwards, predicting heavy to very heavy rain with powerful gusty winds of 40-50 kmph, even hitting 60 kmph in coastal Maharashtra including Mumbai. Some places got drenched worse than others. Vikhroli East received an eye-popping 268 mm, Marol saw 262 mm, and Powai’s Passpoli recorded 257 mm. Versova and the Forsbery reservoir also took a big splash with 250 mm and 220 mm respectively between 4 am and 3 pm! What about the whole day? From 8:30 am on Monday to 8:30 am Tuesday, the western suburbs hogged the rain party with Chincholi fire station recording a massive 361 mm, Kandivali fire station 337 mm, Dindoshi municipal school 305 mm, and Magathane bus depot 304 mm. South Mumbai wasn’t a dry land either! Storm Water Workshop in Dadar measured 300 mm, and B Nadkarni municipal school in Wadala caught 282 mm. Eastern suburbs like Chembur, Vikhroli, Passpoli in Powai, and Vinanagar also saw rains close to 290 mm. And remember Colaba and Santacruz? Colaba recorded 179 mm while Santacruz blew the roof off with 489 mm — that’s 86% of its monthly rainfall just in two days! To battle these floods, BMC’s pumping stations worked like superheroes. From August 16 to 19, they pumped out a jaw-dropping 1,645 crore litres of rainwater! Six pumping stations spread across the city have 43 pumps that can remove a giant 2.58 lakh litres every second. From August 16 to 19, these pumps ran over 761 hours combined—lifting more water than the entire storage of the Tulsi lake! On Tuesday morning alone, 540 mobile dewatering pumps cleared 182.5 crore litres in just six hours. With rains forecast to continue, Mumbai’s fight against the flood is far from over. But the BMC is pulling out all stops to keep the city afloat amid this monsoon drama!

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Tags: Mumbai rain, Bmc, Floodwater pumping, Heavy rainfall, Imd warning, Monsoon 2025,