Getting rain-ready: Will BMC meet its deadline this year?

Standard practice dictates that 70% of the drains should be completed by May-end. But recent assessments suggest the Mumbai civic body is lagging behind again

Apart from the IPL (happily!), the ongoing national elections appear to have overwhelmed everything else, including Mumbai’s preparations for the monsoon that starts barely a month from now.

Desilting work at Mahim Creek earlier this week (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

Going by accounts appearing in the media, this year promises more of the same because of the delay in desilting drains even as the deadline for addressing the problem looms on the horizon.

Standard practice dictates that 70 per cent of the drains – and these are in abundance in the city – should be completed by May-end, the remaining 30 per cent during the monsoon and immediately after.

But recent assessments suggest the BMC is lagging behind again. This means craters, potholes, flooding, etc and all other problems emanating from these, which have been the bane of the city for a long time now, are likely to recur.

According to a report in this newspaper on Wednesday, the BMC has come under flak from members of its own standing committee for tardy progress in the matter, and the burden it holds out for the city during the rains.

“In areas such as Wadala and GTB, not even 30 per cent of the work has been done. Civic officials, in connivance with contractors, are giving misleading figures on the progress of the work,’’ leader of opposition Ravi Raja alleges in the report.

“The administration is not serious about the pre-monsoon work,’’ he adds. Raja is seconded by Byculla corporator Rais Shaikh who says no work at all has been done in his ward.

Politicking on such issues is inevitable, but there is something to be read in Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar’s statement that his survey reveals a great deal of the silt has been removed and he has told officials in charge that work must be completed in time.

This has a foreboding tone to it, accentuated by the fact that the city’s BJP head Ashish Shelar says he has met the BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta and impressed on him to move with a sense of greater urgency in the matter.

It’s not an easy situation for the BMC chief to be in. Apart from the annual desilting program, ongoing construction of the Metro railway imposes its own set of problems – logistical and otherwise – in ensuring Mumbai is free of flooding.

The Metro lines start from the southern end tip at Cuffe Parade and branch out in several directions to the eastern and western suburbs, covering pretty much the entire city, so there are no ‘relief’ zones. This means remedial measures have to be taken pronto and diligently.

While potholes and flooding are the most visible – and have become the most newsworthy aspect of the Mumbai monsoon for several years now, the problem is more widespread.

Frustrating delays in commute is the most manifest, but least hurtful of the problems. Flooding causes loss of work hours (consequently livelihood), loss of property and other things of tangible value, and not the least, poses severe health hazards.

All of these, needless to say, also eat into the resources of the BMC. It is puerile thinking that since the corporation is the richest civic body in the country, money is not the issue. It is, for the money saved can be spent elsewhere.

The BMC chief, one understands, has worked out a crisis management plan with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRC), including setting up a task force comprising engineers and contractors to ensure there is no hardship.

That’s laudable. However, what matters is how this plays out on the ground, as it were. This necessitates speedy follow-up action, reprimands, fines and suspension to those showing

lethargy or even dismantling contracts for below par work.

I am not completely acquainted with how such work and tasks are assessed in the BMC, but it is reasonable to believe there will be a certain benchmarking which, if not met, invites punishment.

My only input here would be that this should be stiff and instantly actionable to make those in charge accountable, disallowing any scope for the hackneyed excuses one keeps hearing year after year.

With the May-end deadline just three weeks away, the gauntlet has been thrown at the BMC and other bodies. Hopefully, this year they will live up to the challenge.