CR-BMC make builder pay for dumping debris in nullah

The debris, comprising mainly construction materials, was dumped during the construction of buildings back in 2019. Sources from CR said that after the dumping in the nullahs, the railway area between Kanjurmarg and Vikhroli has been experiencing waterlogging, which affected rail services in the monsoon.

MumbaiIn a first, Central Railway (CR) and the BMC will recover the cost of cleaning a drainage line from developer Ajmera Builders after the latter dumped construction debris in the nullah running between Vikhroli and Kanjurmarg stations. “It has been jointly decided that as part of the Karve Nagar nullah improvement work, the work will be done by the BMC and the cost recovered from Ajmera Builders,” said Dr Shivraj Manaspure, Chief PRO, CR.

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The debris, comprising mainly construction materials, was dumped during the construction of buildings back in 2019. Sources from CR said that after the dumping in the nullahs, the railway area between Kanjurmarg and Vikhroli has been experiencing waterlogging, which affected rail services in the monsoon.

“This nullah runs from east to west, and its outlet has been blocked by the debris, which leads to water ingressing on to the rail lines,” said a CR official. “Now the work of not just removing the debris but also clearing the cement-concrete has been undertaken.”

Ajmera Builders did not respond to requests for comment till the time of going to press.

On May 22, CR had a high-level internal meeting, where various modalities on pre-monsoon works were discussed. Twenty-four vulnerable locations, apart from Vikhroli and Kanjurmarg, have already been identified, among them Masjid, Mazgaon yard, Byculla, Chinchpokli, Currey Road, Parel, Dadar, Matunga, Sion, Kurla, Bhandup and Mulund on the central railway and Sewri, Vadala, Guru Tegh Bahadur Nagar, Chunabhatti, and Tilak Nagar on the harbour line.

“We have placed 166 pumps at these locations to drain out water,” said a CR official. “These include 120 high-power pumps and 15 normal pumps. The BMC will provide the other 31.” The number of pumps has been increased by approximately 20 to 25 this monsoon.

Apart from the pumps, micro-tunnelling for additional drains has been provided at eight locations—Masjid, Sandhurst Road, the Dadar-Parel area, the Matunga-Sion area, Kurla Car Shed, Tilak Nagar nullah, Diva and Kalva. Micro-tunnelling works are in progress at two new locations in Thane-Kalva and the Kalva-Mumbra section. CR’s target of desilting and cleaning 118.48 km of drains on its suburban section is almost done, with work on 102.39 km having been completed.

CR has also cleaned 88 culverts on its suburban sections, and work is presently in progress on the cleaning of 17 more culverts. Culvert augmentation work is being done in the Kurla-Trombay area, Chunabhatti, Wadala Road, Vidyavihar-LTT area and Tilak Nagar. The work of trimming 23 trees is under way while 43 trees have already been cut. Muck of 62,000 cubic meters has been removed while railway tracks will be elevated on certain stretches totalling 47.8 km in all.