People walk through roads flooded due to heavy rains in Mumbai.

IANS/Mumbai

Torrential rains lashed Mumbai and the surrounding areas yesterday, killing two persons, severely affecting road, rail and air traffic and inconveniencing thousands of daily commuters barely a week after the monsoon set in the region.
Mumbai city recorded 283mm rainfall while the suburbs averaged 209mm in the past 24 hours.
Till yesterday evening, the city had recorded another 72mm rainfall, and 66mm and 50mm downpour in the eastern and western suburbs respectively.
Maharashtra’s coastal regions, including Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg too experienced torrential rain, hitting normal life with flooding in several towns and villages.
Heavy rain was reported from Pune, Satara, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Nashik and other cities, slowing down normal life.
More rain is in store for the metropolitan city, coastal Konkan and other parts of Maharashtra over the weekend, accompanied by strong winds and very rough seas, Mumbai weather bureau director V K Rajeev said.
The dead included Ranjit Gupta, 60, and Gaurav Karnik, 5, living in a building in Wadala, who were electrocuted by loose live wires.
Personnel of the National Disaster Relief Force, Territorial Army, Mumbai Police, fire brigade, home guards and other agencies apart from Indian Navy ships and helicopters were on standby along with boats, life rafts and other equipment to tackle any emergency.
Rain crippled the Mumbai lifeline - the suburban railway network - as rainwater waterlogged the tracks, preventing lakhs from commuting to and from their homes and workplaces.
But the two new showpieces - the Mumbai Metro Rail and Monorail - functioned normally, a spokesperson for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) said.
While Central Railway (CR) and Harbour Line, and Western Railway (WR) started a few services in the early hours, they were delayed and later suspended, rail officials and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Disaster Cell said.
However, services continued on the mainland beyond Thane, Karjat-Kasara and Panvel sections of the CR and beyond Vasai on WR. By late yesterday afternoon, the WR resumed skeletal services from Churchgate to Andheri and beyond.
Angry people vented their ire against the civic body and the state government on social networking sites for the “shoddy pre-monsoon cleaning up operations” costing several billion of rupees.
Rainwater entered low-lying homes, especially in slums, tenements and other vulnerable areas in different parts of the city.
Several opposition leaders also criticised the BJP government and the BMC for putting the lives of citizens at risk with tall claims of monsoon preparedness.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis yesterday visited the state and BMC disaster cells to take stock of the situation and discussed precautionary and relief measures with the officials.
BJP ally Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray said it was not proper to blame only the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation as there was around 300mm of rainfall in a single day.
BMC spokesperson Vijay Khabale said the civic body had advised people not to send their children to school and residents were asked to venture out only if necessary.
The Bombay High Court remained closed yesterday while lowers courts also remained shut. The Bombay University cancelled all its examinations scheduled for the day.
Meanwhile, heavy waterlogging was reported around the metropolitan city, including in Dadar, Parel, Byculla, Mazagaon, Mahim, Santacruz, Juhu, Vile Parle, Worli, Sion, Chunabhatti, Andheri, Kurla, Borivali, Dahisar, Jogeshwari and other areas, preventing movement of road traffic.
All incoming and outgoing domestic as well as international flights at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport suffered delays of a minimum 15-45 minutes, an official spokesperson said.
At least three incoming flights of different airlines from different destinations to Mumbai were diverted to dry stations like Ahmedabad or Baroda, though there were no cancellations of any domestic or international flights.