Seventeen inbound flights were diverted from the Mumbai airport on Friday as the city witnessed heavy downpour.
The flights were diverted to nearby airports and four flights had to do 'go-around' before they could land, a spokesperson of the Mumbai airport said in the evening.
As the downpour revived the memories of the much greater monsoon fury the city had witnessed on July 26, 2005, there were delays of on average more than one hour in airport operations.
Several flights are delayed by 30 minutes or more, news agency ANI quoted a Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (MIAL) Public Relations Officer as saying.
Meanwhile, sounding an orange alert for Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts of Maharashtra, the IMD also predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai in the next 24 hours.
An orange alert signifies that the authorities should get ready for necessary action.
To this end, the Mumbai Police request people to stay indoors.
"City is expecting intermittent heavy showers all through the night. We request commuters to not venture in water logged areas&also request you all to maintain distance from the sea. Please tweet to us or call on 100 in any emergency/need of help," the Mumbai Police tweeted.
Also, the Central Railway suspended train operations on the Kalyan-Karjat line due to extreme water-logging.
Private weather forecaster Skymet Weather tweeted, "#MumbaiLife rains Nowcast: #MumbaiRains may be heavy in some parts of the city and suburbs in the next 2-4 hours."
The Colaba observatory recorded 19.1 mm rain in the 24 hours ending 8.30 am on Friday, while the Santacruz weather station recorded 44 mm rainfall during that period.
The last two days of rainfall in Mumbai caused water-logging in several parts of the city, including Sion, Matunga, Mahim, Andheri, Malad and Dahisar, which led to traffic snarls at several major junctions.
The IMD, on Friday morning, predicted "heavy rain" in Mumbai, adding Maharashtra could witness "heavy to very heavy rainfall" during the next five days.
"Rainfall in last 24 hrs at morning 6.30 am today in Mumbai and around. Few stations reported heavy rainfall in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. Rest it was moderate as expected. Today watch for more rains," KS Hosalikar, Deputy Director General (DDG), IMD tweeted.
Earlier on Tuesday, IMD predicted very heavy rainfall in India's financial capital and south Konkan area -- especially in the districts of Raigad, Thane and Palghar. The IMD had also issued a warning to fishermen to not risk going into the Arabian Sea which would have a rough course with high waves and wind speeds at 40-50 kmph till Friday.
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(with inputs from agencies)
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