Mumbai launches massive recovery operation

Soldiers, police and rescue workers used bulldozers, cranes and their bare hands to remove boulders and rubble from areas hit by landslides as 130,000 municipal workers set about repairing pot-holed roads, clogged drains and electricity and drinking water services.

R.S Pardeshi of the Police Control Room in Mumbai said the bodies of 37 people were recovered from the city overnight, taking the financial hub's death toll from the floods to 407 and that of Maharashtra state to around 920.

"The total death toll in the state, including Mumbai city, is more than 900," said S. Jadhav, a senior police official with the Police Control Room.

State deputy chief minister R.R. Patil on Friday, however, put the toll at 696 but did not explain why his figures differed from those of the police.

In the southern Mumbai region of Konkan, Indian soldiers used their bare hands, spades and shovels to recover bodies and clear the debris in one of the worst-hit areas, Jui village.

Rescue workers were searching for more bodies in Kotiwala in western Mumbai where flash floods left more than 40 dead.

Mumbai received 944.2 millimeters (37.1 inches) of rainfall in a one-day period ending mid-morning Wednesday, the most rainfall ever recorded in a single day in India, which caused flash floods and landslides in the city and outlying areas of the state.

Heavy rains accompanied by strong winds continued to lash the city Saturday and made recovery operations difficult.

Flights from Mumbai's airport, India's busiest, were suspended for several hours Saturday after an Air India Boeing 747 from the southern city of Bangalore skidded off a wet runway, officials said. None of the 333 passengers were hurt.

However Johny Joseph, the municipal commissioner of Mumbai, said he hoped the city would recover completely within a few days.

"This disaster is unprecedented in the history of Mumbai," Joseph told AFP. "The crisis worsened due to a combination of high tide, flooding and continuous rainfall. Rail and road traffic was disrupted totally and is almost restored now."