Mumbai, Jun 11 (IANS): Southwest monsoon further advanced into the remaining parts of central Arabian Sea, most parts of Konkan, including Mumbai, some parts of Madhya Maharashtra and some more parts of Karnataka on Saturday.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that conditions are favourable for further advancement of monsoon into some parts of north Arabian sea, remaining parts of Konkan, some parts of Gujarat, most parts of Madhya Maharashtra, entire Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, some parts of Telengana, Andhra Pradesh, and northwest Bay of Bengal during the next 48 hours.

With this, the monsoon starts covering what IMD identifies as 'monsoon core zone', i.e., the area that lies mostly in central India from west to east coast and largely dependent on monsoon rainfall for agriculture.

After onset over Kerala on May 29, three days ahead of its normal date in June, there was a slow progress of southwest monsoon owing to lack of system that could push it forward. Then, after almost a week of slow progress, IMD had declared on June 9 that conditions were favourable for the advancement of southwest monsoon further.

"Conditions would continue to become favourable for further advancement of monsoon into some more parts of north Arabian Sea, Gujarat, some parts of Marathwada, some more parts of Telengana, Andhra Pradesh, most parts of Bay of Bengal, entire Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, some parts of Odisha, Gangetic West Bengal, Jharakhand and Bihar during the subsequent 2-3 days," the IMD forecast said.