Tuesday, July 4 2006 13:11 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Heavy rains continued to lash the city and the suburbs for the fourth consecutive day, leading to suspension of local train services, throwing normal life out of gear.

Due to water-logging on railway tracks, train services on the Central and Harbour Lines came to a grinding halt since 10 am, causing inconvenience to thousands of office-goers.

The Met office has predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall along with strong gusty winds for the next 24 hours.

The fishermen have been advised not to venture into the seas.

In the last 24 hours ending 8.30 am today, the Colaba Observatory has recorded 121 mm rainfall while Santa Cruz Observatory has recorded a rainfall of 152 mm.

Several long distance trains on Central lines were either suspended or stranded at various stations, as the tracks were under 3.5 inches of water, railway sources said.

Meanwhile, the trains on the Western Railway section were running 15 minutes to half an hour behind schedule.

Also, the road traffic was thrown out of gear due to inundation of roads in low lying areas of eastern and western suburbs.

Traffic has been diverted at several places due to inundation of roads in Andheri, Khar, Milan Subway and Dahisar, official sources said.

The educational institutions have declared a holiday for the second day today, they said.