Airlines Deals

For the high flyers from Air India and Indian Airlines, 26/7 was a mammoth disaster.

Not only were the employees staying in these two colonies completely grounded after the airport wall collapsed, their homes and lives were flooded and it took more than a week to get things back to normal.

Each time it rains, the low-lying areas, the usual suspects, go under water. The Kalina area near the airport is no exception and even during a regular monsoon is not new to flooding.

But nothing could have prepared the residents here for last year’s rain terror. There was 944 cm of rain in just a day and from noon the Kalina area had started showing signs of flooding.

Central to the drama were the airport colonies of Indian Airlines and Air India, home to the employees working with the national carrier.

Nature’s fury

Starting from about a foot high, water quickly rose to six feet by evening. Residents on the ground floor hardly got any time to pack their belongings.

Before they knew it, water had flooded their homes destroying everything in its way, from files and papers to furniture and mattresses.

And just as people thought things couldn’t get any worse the airport wall near the colony collapsed and the water came gushing in.

The rainwater had completely submerged the ground floor and was already threatening to drown the first. Taken completely by surprise many lost their lives in the struggle to stay afloat.

In spite of being in the city, Kalina was completely cut off. Phone lines went dead, electricity was out and there was no food, no water and no signs of any help or rescue.

Caught in the midst of an incessant downpour, a raging Mithi river, an illegal airport extension and government apathy, even today, this low lying area serves as a constant reminder of the extent of human losses that Mumbai suffered in last year’s floods.