Mumbai airport: Flight operations on hold as pre-monsoon rains affect visibility

Flight operations at the city airport were put on hold after heavy rains brought down visibility below the required limit, a Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) spokesperson said Monday night. "Due to heavy rains the visibility has gone down and the operations is on hold for the last 13 minutes," the spokesperson said in a voice message. Due to this, a Newark-bound United Airlines flight from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj international airport was diverted to Delhi, the spokesperson said.

"Runway 09x27 (the main runway) will be handed over to the air traffic control any time soon to restart operations," she said. Mumbai gets pre-monsoon showers. Mumbai and suburbs witnessed pre-monsoon showers Monday night, bringing people some respite from sweltering heat. It is the first pre-monsoon showers in the south Mumbai region, said an IMD official. Eastern parts of the city have already witnessed light showers and drizzle.

Areas like Colaba in south Mumbai, western suburbs of Santacruz, Malad, Kandivali and Borivali along with Kurla, Ghatkopar and Vikroli also received good spells of showers, accompanied by thunder and lightning.

Movement of Mumbai's life line, suburban trains, was affected near Kopar station due to some technical issues triggered by rain. Harbour line services that are part of the Central Railway were running normal.