The first monsoon rains of the year pounded Mumbai over the weekend, killing at least five people, submerging roads, toppling trees and flooding the offices of city leaders who had said Mumbai was prepared for the weather. Although Mumbai is trying to build itself into a global financial center, parts of it tend to crumble come the monsoon. Walls and other bits of buildings collapsed and crushed two people in different parts of the city on Sunday, the Mumbai Mirror reported. Three other people were killed on Saturday, either crushed or electrocuted, the Press Trust of India said. Thirteen flights into India's financial capital were diverted to distant cities, while many more were delayed by up to an hour. There were occasional power cuts. Roads became impassable rivers, and pedestrians became waders. Then, on Saturday, dreaded news came: the city's suburban railways, which ferry millions of people every day, had come to a standstill. “People start crying,” Nishikant Kulkarni, an assistant engineer at the city's disaster management offices, said by telephone. “They have to go to their houses after finishing their office work and the railways stop and they start panicking.” There have been steady showers since Thursday, but the city's weather department officially declared the monsoon had rolled into town on Saturday, a few days earlier than usual. Since then, around 10cm (4 inches) of rain has fallen on the city each day. “It's on the higher side,” C.V.V. Bhadram, the head of the city's weather office, said by telephone. Some of that rain has poured through the ageing roof of the offices of the city's municipal authority, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which is charged with readying the city for the monsoon. Local newspapers showed little sympathy.
