The newly-appointed Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief Bhushan Gagarani on Tuesday, May 21, directed civic staff to speed up pre-monsoon drain cleaning work by assigning additional machinery and manpower to remove silt.
He made this statement in a review meeting held for nullah desilting work ahead of the monsoon season, which is anticipated by June 11 in Mumbai.
The civic chief has set a target of June 5 for officials to clean all nullahs in the city. Additionally, zonal deputy municipal commissioners and assistant municipal commissioners to visit the spots at least twice a day to take stock of work done, he added.
He asked officials to keep a watch on garbage disposal in nullahs. Moreover, trash booms should be installed in narrow drains to trap floating material. He also asked officials to take the help of locals.
According to data, BMC has completed 95 per cent of the desilting work.
Clarifying further, the civic body exclaimed that they have completed 90.78 per cent of the desilting in the western suburbs and removed 2,13,354 metric tonnes of silt from nullahs. Meanwhile, in the eastern suburbs, 1,10,715 metric tonnes of silt has been removed, amounting to 89.82 per cent of the target.
In Mumbai city, the civic body has completed 93.08 per cent of desilting work and removed 28,797 metric tonnes of silt.
Desilting of the Mithi River is 92 per cent complete while the desilting of minor and highway drains is 100 per cent complete.
On the contrary, BJP Mumbai president Ashish Shelar expressed displeasure after inspecting some of the nullahs cleaning work in the western suburbs.
Shelar inspected the desilting works on Tuesday, May 21, at Gazdar Bandh Junction, South Avenue, North Avenue, SNDT nullah in the western suburbs on Tuesday. He said that the BMC’s claim of having completed 75% of the work is false and not more than 40 to 45% of work has been completed.
Later in the day, demanded a white paper on desilting of nullahs carried out by the BMC in Mumbai.
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