The bad weather was caused by a depression over the east coast and a revival of the June-September annual monsoon rains which had hit a lean patch, leading to a dry spell across large swathes of the subcontinent.

At least 22 people were killed in the eastern states of Orissa and Jharkhand and several were missing in neighbouring West Bengal after torrential rains caused rivers to break their banks and triggered landslides, officials said.

Nine of the 22 died when their country boat capsized in the Kanhar river in Jharkhand, about 135km west of the state capital, Ranchi.

Two people were washed away in floodwaters, 10 fishermen were missing and thousands displaced in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh as hundreds of villages were inundated.

"Four flood gates of a reservoir were also swept away in the swirling rain waters," said V.N. Vishnu, administrator of Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh.

Navy boats and helicopters had been pressed in to rescue marooned people from rooftops and also to drop food, medicine and water packets, authorities said.

"We have evacuated 15,000 people from waterlogged villages in the district to the safety of relief camps," Vishnu said.

In Mumbai, the country's commercial capital, schools and colleges were shut and emergency workers flushed muddy waters from submerged streets as the bustling city struggled to cope with a second day of monsoon rains.