‘Heavy rain’ for next 24-48 hrs, says Met

Mumbai: The city, especially the suburbs, continued to receive heavy rainfall till Wednesday evening and the weathermen have forecast "heavy rain" for the next 24-48 hours. India Meteorological Department deputy director general N Y Apte said similar rains to that of Wednesday could be expected for the next two days.      "Intermittent rain or shower would occur in parts of the city and suburbs. One or two spells may be heavy," the IMD forecast on Wednesday said.      In the 24-hour period between Tuesday and Wednesday, Colaba received 48.6 mm of rainfall, while Santa Cruz recorded 76.3 mm. Between 8:30am and 5:30pm on Wednesday, Colaba and Santa Cruz recorded 3.1 mm and 24.9 mm of rainfall, respectively.      However, many areas received more than 100 mm of rainfall between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning. Worli, for example, received 120 mm, while Bandra received 117 mm. Apart from Vikhroli, which received 103 mm, many other areas like Dharavi, Dadar and Kurla received more than 90 mm of rainfall each.      The IMD said the monsoon further advanced on Wednesday into somemore parts of north Arabian Sea, Gujarat, remaining parts of Maharashtra and some more parts of Madhya Pradesh. "For the next two days, Mumbai can expect showers similar to that of Wednesday," IMD deputy director general Apte said.      Meanwhile, the day-time temperature fell. While Colaba recorded 28.4 degree Celsius, Santa Cruz recorded 28 degree Celsius maximum temperature on Wednesday. The evening relative humidity recorded in both stations was 92%, suggesting further rainfall for the city. PARCHED STATE Water crisis yet to abate despite rains       Mumbai: State officials on Wednesday said several parts of Maharashtra had received healthy rainfall in the last 48 hours, bringing some muchneeded relief to the parched state. Officials said the wet spell must continue in the same vein for the drinking water crisis to abate.      Of the 35 districts in the state, only four districts, Sindhudurg, Akola, Washim, and Amravati, have so far witnessed normal or above par rainfall. Rainfall has been 60% below the normal average in Nandurbar and Jalgaon districts. In 14 other districts, including Thane, Dhule, Ahmednagar, Jalna, Sangli, Beed, Osmanabad, Hingoli, Nagpur, Chandrapur, and Gadchiroli, rainfall so far has been 40-60% of the normal average. In Ratnagiri, Latur, Parbhani, Buldhana, and Yavatmal, about 60-80% of the normal average has been witnessed.      Rainfall in the last 48 hours and the drought situation in the state were discussed at the state cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Deputy CM Ajit Pawar cited the need to lift some drought relief measures on the basis of the rainfall recently. However, a decision was taken to continue with all the measures till July 15, with CM Prithviraj Chavan indicating that the water situation continued to be worrisome in many areas.