Mumbai: Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday visited the sites of landslides in Mumbai, and said that the state government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are providing all necessary financial and medical assistance to those affected.I visited the three locations of landslides where the sheer force of rainwater and mud broke through retaining walls into homes. Relief work is going on and all necessary financial and medical assistance is being provided by the government of Maharashtra and BMC,” Thackeray tweeted. The state tourism minister further described heavy rains which lashed Mumbai last night, eventually triggering landslides, as being caused by a “weather system of extremely heavy rainfall” accompanied by thundering and lightning. “Some parts crossed 200 mm of rain in a span of three hours. These were mini cloudbursts in a short span with the full fury of nature,” Thackeray posted in a subsequent tweet. The minister also praised agencies such as the BMC, Mumbai Police, Mumbai Fire Brigade and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), whose teams, he said, “worked to evacuate and rescue people from incidents like Mithi breaching danger levels.” Thackeray added that mini pumps and pumping stations had pumped out 4423.50 million litres of water till now.

At least 22 people have lost their lives and several others injured in Mumbai and one of its suburbs, following heavy rains that lashed the city and its surrounding areas on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Expressing his condolences over the loss of lives, prime minister Narendra Modi announced ex-gratia of ₹200,000 each for the families of those who were killed and ₹50,000 for those injured. The ex-gratia amount will be given from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF), the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) tweeted to inform.