Monsoon Audit: 3 of 5 Mumbai roads HT warned about flooded

A panel of four experts, who were part of HT’s Monsoon Audit, had in June red-flagged SV Road, Andheri-Kurla Road and BA Road, all of which flooded on Tuesday.

Like every year, as rains lashed the city, waterlogging – leading to traffic snarls and inconvenienced Mumbaiites – made headlines yet again. And while the blame-games continue, three out of the five roads which a panel of four experts as part of HT’s monsoon audit red-flagged in June, were flooded yet again on Tuesday morning. These were – SV Road, Andheri Kurla Road and BA Road, opposite Gandhi Market in Sion-Dadar area.

The water-logged SV Road in Santacruz on Tuesday. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

The expert team comprising of an IIT professor specialising in transportation engineering, a civic activist and two retired chief engineers, had examined five arterial roads in the city and rated the civic body’s monsoon preparedness on June 9.

Rated by the panel at 6.3 out of 10 in June, BA Road, near Gandhi Market in Dadar – an arterial road connecting island city to eastern suburbs through the eastern express highway – was severely waterlogged on Tuesday morning with residents complaining that traffic was brought to a halt. The road, a chronic flooding spot by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) own admission, has for years had just one dewatering pump.

While they had sounded the bell after finding debris heaped along the roadside on their June 2 visit, the panel’s apprehensions were realised when just two hours of rains on June 7 had also left the stretch inundated. “It is clear that dewatering pumps at the site are not enough to control the situation. The Mahul pumping station should be taken up on priority,” said Nikhil Desai, local activist.

Civic officials said until the Mahul pumping station is operational, Sion, Matunga and Kurla would continue to depend on dewatering pumps. The pumping station near Mahul creek, part of the eight pumping stations under Brimstowad, which will come up on a salt-pan land, is yet to get a green nod from the environment ministry.

Parts of Andheri-Kurla Road near the Western Express Highway Metro station got water-logged. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

Much like BA Road, several spots along SV Road and Andheri Kurla Road in the western suburbs were also in troubled waters in the downpour. The panel had rated SV Road 6.3 out of 10 and warned about the patchy repairing work and the encroachment on water outlets which may lead to waterlogging.

The panel had rated Andheri Kurla Road as one of the worst spots, at 3.4 out of 10. Taken up for concretisation two years back, the work on this stretch is still on. While BMC had concretised certain patches, the road has been left uneven, creating bottlenecks. The ongoing Metro-3 (Colaba- Bandra- Seepz) work has further worsened the condition of this busy stretch that connects Kurla to the Western Express Highway. Vinod Chitore, chief engineer roads had earlier said, “Depending upon traffic permission and parts that needed immediate attention, some concretisation work was done. It will take two years for the entire stretch.”