The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has completed 37% of its pre-monsoon desilting activities, which aims to prevent waterlogging during heavy rain by clearing silt from all main and small drains, rivers, and water bodies, in the city.
Last year, the civic body had spent INR 180 crore on drain cleaning, but this year it plans to spend around INR 226 crore.
The BMC has desilted 46% of the drains in the island city, 56% in the eastern suburbs, and 44% in the western suburbs.
At the municipal ward level, 33% of the local drains, 26% of the Mithi River, and 19% of the expressway's periphery drains have been desilted. So far, 3.54 lakh metric tonnes of silt have been removed.
In December of last year, the BMC launched tenders for pre-monsoon desilting activities, following criticism for starting the drainage cleaning project later than anticipated due to a delay in the granting of a work order.
The project began in the first week of March and is expected to be completed by the end of May or at the latest, the first week of June.
According to BMC regulations, 75% of the desilting work must be finished before the monsoon, with the remaining 25% being desilted after the rains.
Annually, 254 km of major drains, 443 km of minor drains, and 21 km of the Mithi River are desilted.
The BMC will also desilt the drains next to the Western Express Highway (WEH) and Eastern Express Highway (EEH) since it assumed control of these two highways last year.
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