In a major concern, amid nearing of the monsoon season, Mumbai is unlikely to be rid of its waterlogging woes this year.
If reports are to be believed it has been observed that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has desilted only 39 per cent of the nullahs targeted for pre-monsoon clean-up in the city, as per official data.
This comes a day after its deadline, which was on Sunday, May 15, to unclog the drains in the city and its suburbs.
Meanwhile, leaders of the opposition parties in the BMC did not leave any stones unturned to accuse the civic administration of irregularities in the ongoing pre-monsoon desilting works.
With only two weeks left this month, the BMC administration has not been able to finish even 50 per cent of the pre-monsoon desilting works, leaders maintained.
Besides, Ravi Raja, former municipal corporator and leader of opposition in the BMC, took to Twitter and wrote: “The desilting work is moving at a snail’s pace. So far, only 39% of the work is complete and the monsoon will arrive in a couple of weeks. BMC just to save their face sending show cause notices to contractor. But it won’t help. This year too city will face water logging due to this.”
The desilting work is moving at snail speed. So far only 39% work is done and the monsoon will arrive in couple of weeks. @mybmc just to save their face sending show cause notices to contractor. But it won’t help. This year too city will face water logging due to this. 1-1
— Ravi Raja INC (@ravirajaINC) May 16, 2022
On the other hand, civic officials of the Storm Water Drains (SWD) department have claimed that as of May 16, they have already achieved 60 per cent of the proposed target.
The BMC desilted 66 per cent of the drains in the Eastern suburbs and 60 per cent in the Western suburbs by Sunday, May 15, as part of the pre-monsoon target.
For those unversed, the pre-monsoon desilting of gutters, nullahs and rivers started in April. The former BMC commissioner set a deadline of May 15 to complete the work. The BMC’s annual target of clearing silt from nullahs, including cleaning 75 per cent of it before monsoon, 10 per cent during the monsoon and 15 per cent post-monsoon.
However, the work on several nullahs hasn’t even started. Most of these are in Goregaon, Malad and Kandivali. The BMC had been allocated INR 162 crores for pre-monsoon desilting, including cleaning of Mithi river.
Nullahs where desilting is yet to start
Cleveland Bunder, Worli
LIC box drain, Andheri West
Nandadeep nullah, Goregaon
Bimbisar Nagar, Goregaon
NESCO nullah, Goregaon
Radium-Phadi nullah, Goregaon
Dnyaneshwar Nagar nullah, Goregaon
Ram Nagar nullah, Malad
Pancholia nullah, Kandivali
Akhil nullah, Kandivali
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