Downpour will wash away Mumbai civic body’s claims, say experts

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) monsoon preparations are likely to prevent waterlogging at several areas of western suburbs only for the first 30 minutes of heavy rainfall

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) monsoon preparations are likely to prevent waterlogging at several areas of western suburbs only for the first 30 minutes of heavy rainfall.

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Reason? Despite BMC’s tall claims of overachieving its target of removing silt from nullahs, they have remained uncleaned and had floating garbage and hardened silt, which can lead to waterlogging at Santacruz, Khar and Juhu Tara Road, if there is heavy rainfall this monsoon.

The possibility that these areas can get waterlogged is backed by the findings of HT’s monsoon audit by a three-member expert panel, on Wednesday. The three experts examined BMC’s desilting and nullah-cleaning work at several areas in Gazdar Bandh at Santacruz.

They found that the South Avenue nullah, Main Avenue nullah and P&T nullah were clogged with sewage, silt and a lot of floating garbage discharged on a daily basis from the slums located on the banks of the three nullahs. Citizens residing in slums constructed on the banks of the nullahs were partly to be blamed for discharging waste into the nullahs which are supposed to act as a channel for discharging the rainwater.

South Avenue nullah discharges rainwater coming from SV Road towards Gazdar Bandh pumping station, which is located closer to the sea. According to the observation made by experts, not only is the nullah filled with waste, but BMC’s claim of desilting has also washed out, considering the huge amount of silt lying inside the South Avenue nullah.

At Main Avenue nullah, the experts have observed that the road running parallel to the nullah was very narrow, which might cause difficulty in removing the cranes and other heavy vehicles amid waterlogging. Here too, one could easily spot waste floating and untouched silt inside the nullah.

The scenario was no different at P&T nullah either. The only thing different here was that silt was collected and kept sideways towards the nullah to ensure that the water flow is not hindered. However, silt along with garbage floating in it were not removed.

Owing to the condition of above three nullahs, residents in the area face waterlogging on all the roads, starting from the 10th to the 20th road in Santacruz and Khar, along with flooding of major arterial roads, including SV Road and Linking Road.

According to BMC, it undertakes 75% of the required desilting every year before monsoon and 15% during the season. The remaining 10% is undertaken after monsoon.

Surprisingly the data, prepared by the civic body claims to have achieved 102% of its desilting target for the western suburbs, as on June 2. According to BMC data, a total of 237,561.77 metric tonnes of silt was present in the nullahs and rivers of western suburbs, of which 179,062.18 metric tonnes had to be removed before monsoon. However, BMC claims to have removed 183,771.39 metric tonnes.

Udaykumar Shiroorkar, former assistant municipal commissioner,, said, “The visual inspection indicates that no work has been done properly for western suburbs, and there is plenty of silt and garbage floating in it. The silt in the nullah has hardened, indicating that it has not been deposited recently. I would not go by BMC data, and my observation is from what I saw on ground, and that was not satisfactory.”

DK Pathak, a former engineer of civic body’s storm water drainage department said that better cleaning of nullahs is needed to ensure that there is minimal scope of waterlogging.

“What we saw on Wednesday in the western suburbs was that only half of the desilting work was completed,” he said.

Santacruz resident Gautam Rao alleged that locals have been complaining of waterlogging around Gazdar Bandh area for 20 years now.

“With time, the situation has worsened, as even Link Road and SV Road get waterlogged now. We had to go to the court to ensure that BMC takes measures to resolve the problem. They [BMC] spent over ₹100 crore and said the problem will be resolved once the Gazar Bandh pumping station is operational. The pumping station has been operational for almost two years, but the situation is the same even today,” said Rao.

Bhagyawant Late, deputy chief engineer of storm water drains (western suburbs), said that the nullahs and drains have been cleaned regularly.

“The problem of garbage is continuous due to the nearby settlements. It’s not like we haven’t done proper desilting work. We have taken out the required amount of silt,” Late said.

“There is an average depth for every nullah that is decided, and silt is removed as per those calculations. Also, as Gazdar Bandh is near the sea, the silt deposits in the drains during high tide. Our system is efficient to handle 50mm of rainfall in one hour. If it rains beyond that, draining out water might get slow, resulting in waterlogging,” he said.