State, Mumbai are ready for monsoon, says CM
Submerged roads, crippled transport system, and water entering homes — Mumbai fails the monsoon test almost every year.
Submerged roads, crippled transport system, and water entering homes — Mumbai fails the monsoon test almost every year. But if chief minister Prithviraj Chavan is to be believed, the state in general and coastal areas such as Mumbai in particular are ready for the onset of rains.
“With the doppler radar system installed at Nagpur and Mumbai, and automated weather stations being fixed at several locations, we will not only get updated weather alerts, but also predict cyclones, such as the Phyan, in advance,” said Chavan.
He was speaking at a state level workshop of the state disaster management authority on Friday.
Chavan said every revenue division in the state would have a weather station which would be able to tell when and where the monsoon had reached and with what intensity.
The CM also announced the setting up of a special Cloud Study and Research Centre in Mahabaleshwar. “There are changing weather patterns and climatic changes occurring due to global warming and we need to look at it seriously,” he said.
Apart from the round-the-clock central disaster control room based in the state headquarters, Mumbai will have a separate disaster control cell and the municipal commissioner would be incharge, he added.
District collectors raised the issue of very high frequency communication wireless sets becoming redundant, making it difficult to communicate during emergency situations. They also raised a stink on incomplete work carried out by the irrigation department for demarcation of the blue-zone line, which is the flood line.
Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said necessary funds for disaster management would be provided. As for Mumbai, Chavan said a separate disaster management plan was in place, but a meeting was scheduled next week under the supervision of chief secretary Ratnakar Gaikwad.