With power and mobile networks down in waterlogged neighbourhoods for days together, citizens flocked to the Vasai Road railway station to charge phones, stay dry and reconnect as the station turned into an oasis, the only place with an uninterrupted power supply.

“Residents from surrounding neighbourhoods began flocking to the railway premises, not necessarily to catch a train, but simply to charge their dying mobile phones, find a dry corner and reconnect with the outside world,” a station official said.