Maharashtra rain fury claims 27 lives; 18 die in Mumbai wall collapse
Mumbai: Rain fury claimed 27 lives in Maharashtra, including 18 in a wall collapse in Mumbai, while the authorities declared a holiday in the city and adjoining regions, asking people to avoid stepping out of their houses.
Eighteen people were killed and over 50 injured in a wall collapse in the northern suburb of Malad in Mumbai early Tuesday following heavy rains.
In Pune, six labourers were killed and three injured after a wall collapsed in Ambegaon area late Monday night. A wall collapse in Kalyan in Thane district early Tuesday killed three people, officials said.
Altogether 54 flights were diverted and 52 cancelled at Mumbais Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport due to inclement weather.
A SpiceJet flight from Jaipur skid and overshot the main runway while landing at the Mumbai airport amid heavy rains on Monday, although none of the passengers were hurt in the incident, an airline spokesperson said.
A wall collapsed on hutments in Pimpripada area of Malad East due to heavy rainfall. A senior NDRF official told reporters at the site that his team searched the debris with advanced equipment and also by canine search for bodies.
The official said that around 2 am, a compound wall in Pimpripada collapsed, trapping people living in shanties adjacent to the wall.
"Our team of National Disaster Response Force along with sniffer dog reached the site of the incident immediately after receiving the information. Besides, a team of fire brigade and local police also reached the spot and took control of the situation," a senior NDRF official said.
The injured were taken to Jogeshwari Trauma Hospital and Kandivali-based Shatabdi Hospital, a civic official said.
In the incident in Kalyan, the wall of an Urdu school behind Durgai Fort collapsed around 1 am, killing three people in the hutments adjacent.
Heavy rains also saw a joint evacuation operation in suburban Kurla with the NDRF, Navy and fire brigade shifting some 1,000 people to temporary shelters, a Navy official said.
A Navy team encountered extreme waterlogging and abandoned vehicles, preventing their own vehicles from reaching the site, the official added.
The team moved on foot, carrying safety gear like lifebuoys and lifejackets and was able to help elderly women and children to safer areas.
Authorities have declared Tuesday as a public holiday in Mumbai as the Indian Meteorological Department has forecast heavy rains.
"In the wake of the extreme heavy rainfall forecast by the IMD, the Government of Maharashtra has declared a public holiday on July 2 as a precautionary measure for Mumbai city and its citizens," a civic official said.
Students, who were supposed to come to Mumbai on Tuesday for their documents verification for the undergraduate admission in MBBS, BDS and BAMS courses, have now been given the date of July 5, for the same procedure, CET Commissioner Anand Rayate said.
The Mumbai University has also postponed the exam of B.Sc Computer Science for first and second year students due to heavy rains, an official said.
The Central Railway has also decided to run local trains in limited corridors due to water logging on the railway tracks.
"Trains will run in CSMT-Andheri-Goregaon section in harbour line. Vashi to Panvel in harbour line. Thane to Vashi and Panvel in trans harbour line. CSMT to Thane Karjat and Khopoli sections," a CR official said.
He said CR personnel, with the help of RPF jawans, rescued thousands of passengers stranded in midnight local trains and served them tea, biscuits and other edible items at stations.
A senior official of the Western Railway said its suburban services are running between Churchgate and Virar even if the frequency was less.
"Frequency may be less between Vasai Road and Virar due to receipt of outstation trains," he said.
Suburban local train service is also badly affected as low lying areas were submerged. The signalling system became dysfunctional, forcing railway administration to suspend local as well as long distance train movement, said an official from Central Railways.
Over long-distance trains of the central and western railways were either cancelled or terminated ahead of final destination due to heavy rainfall, the official said.
Power utility companies have also suspended the supply in some suburban areas of Mumbai as a precautionary measure.
The heavy downpour also forced Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to cancel his scheduled ground breaking function of construction of a new building for MLAs.
The Meteorological Department has warned of "extremely heavy" rainfall in adjoining areas of Thane and Palghar on July 2, 4 and 5. A few places in Mumbai could get heavy to very heavy rainfall Monday and Tuesday, it added.
Private weather agency Skymet said Mumbai is at "serious risk of flooding" between July 3 and 5. "Close to 200 mm or more rain per day is likely during this period, which could hamper normal life," it said.
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Rs 30,000 cr loss a month: Oil companies bleed as fuel prices on hold amid global energy spike
New Delhi (PTI): About Rs 700-1,000 crore loss per day. Rs 30,000 crore every month. India's state oil companies are quietly absorbing a massive financial hit to keep petrol, diesel and LPG prices unchanged even as global energy markets face a turmoil that is bigger than all previous crises combined.
While countries from Japan to United Kingdom have raised petrol and diesel prices by up to 30 per cent since the start of the West Asia conflict, fuel prices in India continue at two-year-old levels.
The war disrupted India's import of 40 per cent of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel), 90 per cent cooking gas LPG and 65 per cent natural gas (used to generate electricity, make fertilizer, turned into CNG and piped to household kitchens for cooking), but state-owned oil companies have maintained uninterrupted fuel supplies with no rationing or shortage at any point in the last 10 weeks.
But this has come at a cost - Rs 30,000 crore under-recovery or loss every month for the three oil marketing companies - Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The under-recoveries - the gap between input costs and realised retail prices - rose sharply in March/April before tapering a bit. Daily under-recoveries during April were estimated at about Rs 18 per litre on petrol and Rs 25 per litre on diesel, translating into average losses of Rs 700-1,000 crore a day for OMCs, they said.
At a news briefing on developments in West Asia, Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said prices in the international markets, on which India relies to meet 88 per cent of its oil needs, have been volatile and supplies impacted.
Crude oil prices which were around USD 70 per barrel two months ago, are now at USD 120, she said. "It has been government's endeavour to keep prices stable so far and that there is no price increase for consumers," she said. "This has hit finances of OMCs... monthly under-recoveries are of the order of Rs 30,000 crore."
She, however, refused to say if retail petrol and diesel prices will continue to hold.
"As I said, the endeavour so far has been to see that there is no price increase," she said.
The three oil marketing companies (OMCs) have worked overtime to keep the supply lines running even when demand spiked due to panic buying.
The government intervention included excise duty reductions and absorption of part of the fuel cost burden. The special additional excise duty on petrol was cut to Rs 3 per litre from Rs 13, while excise duty on diesel was reduced to zero from Rs 10 per litre.
The under-recoveries would have swelled to nearly Rs 62,500 crore had the government not cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 10 per litre each.
The government, Sharma said, has taken a hit of Rs 14,000 crore a month in cutting the excise duty.
The Centre's effective absorption at peak crude prices was estimated at around Rs 24 per litre for petrol and Rs 30 per litre for diesel.
The February 28 strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran triggered a sharp escalation in West Asia tensions. Energy prices surged as the conflict widened and shipping risks intensified in the Strait of Hormuz - the shipping lane through which India and other countries imported crude oil, LPG and natural gas from Gulf countries. Tanker movement was disrupted.
The companies also faced additional costs from emergency crude sourcing, higher freight charges due to vessel diversions, elevated marine insurance premiums and refinery optimisation expenses. Despite these pressures, fuel and LPG supplies remained uninterrupted across the country.
The surge in crude prices and the decision to shield consumers from higher retail prices placed significant strain on OMC balance sheets and refining margins, sources said.
They added that the measures reflected a policy decision to prioritise consumer stability and economic continuity during a global energy shock.
Sources warned that a prolonged period of elevated crude prices could lead to higher working capital borrowings and force some recalibration of capital expenditure plans. However, investments linked to refining expansion, energy security infrastructure, ethanol blending, biofuels and transition fuels would continue with government backing, they said.
India's approach contrasted with measures adopted by several other economies, where fuel prices rose sharply after the conflict-driven energy shock.
Petrol prices increased by about 34 per cent in Spain, 30 per cent in Japan, Italy and Israel, 27 per cent in Germany and 22 per cent in the United Kingdom, according to estimates. Several countries also introduced rationing, conservation advisories, emergency relief packages or fuel caps.
In India, petrol prices remained Rs 94.77 per litre and diesel at Rs 87.67, with no rationing, mobility restrictions or supply disruptions, they added.
Sharma said the revenues that OMCs earn are used to buy crude oil, build infrastructure to process it into fuel and create channels that will take the fuel to consumers.
Their capex spending is all dependent on the revenues they earn, she added.
