The India Meteorological Department has issued a red alert in Mumbai, Palghar, Thane and Raigad districts for Sunday, according to ANI. A red alert denotes very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall.

“Due to the strengthening of monsoon currents and the formation of a low-pressure area over North West Bay of Bengal, the rainfall intensity is very likely to increase over North Konkan during next 48 hours,” the weather department said in its advisory on Saturday.

The weather department also forecast intermittent rain with heavy to very heavy downpour at a few places in the city and suburbs on Sunday. “Maximum and minimum temperatures likely to be around 29 degrees Celsius and 24 degrees Celsius, respectively,” it said.

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The Met department advised fishermen not to venture into the sea till Monday as wind speed was expected to be between 40 km per hour to 60 km per hour along the Maharashtra coast and off it. “Strong wind with speed reaching 40 kmph-50 kmph likely to prevail off Gujarat coast and North Arabian Sea during next five days,” it added.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said it was prepared for the heavy rains, PTI reported. “BMC has alerted its citizens about the possibility of extremely heavy rainfall tomorrow accompanied by lightning during the day [Sunday],” a civic body spokesperson said. “The civic machinery, including the Disaster Management Cell, has been put on alert.”

Meanwhile, the Central Railway said in a statement more than 1,000 passengers rescued from the Mumbai-Kolhapur Mahalaxmi Express on Saturday afternoon made their onward journey in a special train that left from Kalyan at 6.10 pm. The train got stranded on waterlogged tracks in Thane district due to incessant rain on Saturday morning.