A review meeting on monsoon preparedness, chaired by BMC commissioner Sitaram Kunte on Tuesday, has thrown up some uncomfortable facts Mumbaikars will have to face this season. The biggest worry is that if heavy rainfall coincides with high tide, as many as 66 spots in the city will be completely flooded, eventually throwing traffic out of gear. Apart from this, nullah-cleaning work too is moving at a snail’s pace.
The city has a network of 340 km of nullahs, but from April 2 till Tuesday, the BMC, through its contractors, has managed to clean up only 195 km, i.e., around 55 per cent. The last day to complete the task is May 31.
“Officials told the civic chief that while at some locations the work is progressing very slowly, the work hasn’t even started at some places. The commissioner has asked his subordinates to speed up the cleaning work, as only a fortnight is left to complete the remaining 45 per cent of the work,” said a civic official.
This year, BMC officials have identified as many as 66 locations across the city that can face severe water logging due to heavy rainfall. In such an eventuality, traffic movement is bound to be affected, and the traffic department will have to divert vehicles to alternate routes. This is actually less than last year.
“During last year’s monsoon, we had identified many more chronic water logging spots, and had even installed water pumps. After work on the storm water drains at such locations was undertaken, the total number of such locations have reduced to 66,” a civic official said.
He added that the saucer shaped areas in the city would be the affected lot. Some of the locations are Hindmata, Nana Chowk, Matunga, Parel, Andheri and Khar subways, Malad, Kurla, Dharavi, etc.
Mr Kunte has also instructed the assistant municipal commissioners of all the 24 civic administrative wards to get their ward control rooms operational from June 1. Orders have also been issued in the review meeting to survey and inspect various locations in Mumbai where other agencies are working on construction of roads, Metro and monorails and submit a report on the same by May 20.