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Mumbai struggles with early rains
Published on Thu, Jun 01, 2006 at 12:19, Updated on Mon, Jul 03, 2006 at 09:53 in 
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Mumbai: Mumbai was on alert for very heavy rains on Thursday, almost a year after a sharp cloudburst crippled the metropolis for days and killed hundreds of people in the city.
Weather officials have warned of heavy showers in the next 30 hours, saying the monsoon rains, vital for the economy, have reached Mumbai 10 days ahead of schedule.
The alert put authorities on notice as they scurried to check drainage systems, traffic management and the suburban railway that is a vital lifeline for most of Mumbai's population.
"We have prior warning and we are prepared this time. We had no warning last year," said Mumbai's top civic official, Johny Joseph.
But memories of last year's deluge returned late on Wednesday after a brief spell of rains brought parts of the city to a halt.
Some roads were submerged and trains were delayed.
"The first rains and already our infrastructure cannot cope. What will happen in the next two months?" asked a regular commuter on Mumbai's suburban trains, Sumana Dey, who was stuck in the rains for two hours on Wednesday.
Thousands of people waded through flooded streets and railway tracks to reach their destinations.
Parts of the city went without power and dirty rainwater entered homes in some northern neighbourhoods.
Crores of rupees have been sanctioned to overhaul Mumbai's 150-year-old drainage system, but experts say flooding from rain is difficult to prevent because builders, in league with politicians, had built on wetlands, the city's natural drainage system.
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