MUMBAI: Mumbaikars breathed a collective sigh of relief on Thursday as the dire predictions of the meteorological office of more rain proved wrong. A night and a day with only minor showers meant water-logging in most areas subsided, the railway tracks cleared up, and the transport system was put back in place.

The death toll, however, both in Mumbai and in the State as a whole, emerged as much higher than the figures given out by the Government on Wednesday night. On Thursday, the State Government's control room confirmed 513 deaths in the State (as recorded up to 7 p.m.). Of these, 273 were in Mumbai, mostly by drowning or as a result of short circuits caused by the flooding. But the death toll in the city is bound to rise as bodies continue to be extricated from under the sand following massive landslip in Saki Naka.

Apart from Mumbai, the districts that had the highest casualties were Thane with 102, Navi Mumbai 53 and Raigad 44. Deaths were also reported from Ratnagiri — 15, Sindhudurg 6, Kolhapur 5, Parbhani 3, Nanded 7 and Yeotmal 5.

Greatest relief

In Mumbai, the greatest relief for ordinary people came when the local train service was restored late on Wednesday night. As a result, thousands of people who had spent the last two nights in offices, on railway platforms, in stationary trains, in schools and in colleges could return to their homes on Thursday morning. Both the Western and Central Railway were able to restore the local train service right from the starting point to the distant suburbs.

The domestic and international terminals of the Mumbai airport were partially opened by early Thursday afternoon and the first domestic flights took off. The airport authorities expected both terminals to be fully functional by Friday.

Figures about the total revenue loss suffered by the State during the last two days still remain guess-estimates.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that the losses in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane as a result of damage to businesses would be in the region of at least Rs. 2,000 crores, FICCI president Sushil Jiwarajka told The Hindu that they would be in excess of Rs. 1,000 crores but that a proper estimate could only be made after a couple of days.

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