Monsoon mayhem in Maximum City | Mumbai news - Hindustan Times
close_game
close_game

Monsoon mayhem in Maximum City

Hindustan Times, Mumbai | ByMehul R Thakkar andSwapnil Rawal
Jul 03, 2019 12:00 AM IST

Local people were alerted to the collapsed wall, which belonged to a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) reservoir, after 15-year-old Sanchita Nanaware cried out for help in the middle of the night.

For 12 hours, rescue personnel painstakingly cut through slabs of concrete to rescue a family of five buried under the rubble of a government compound wall that came crashing down on an overcrowded slum in the packed Mumbai suburb of Malad. As they worked with gas cutters and crushed piles of bricks, heavy rainfall pounded them at night.

People walk along a flooded street after heavy rain showers outside Kurla station in Mumbai(Kunal Patil/Hindustan Times)
People walk along a flooded street after heavy rain showers outside Kurla station in Mumbai(Kunal Patil/Hindustan Times)

Local people were alerted to the collapsed wall, which belonged to a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) reservoir, after 15-year-old Sanchita Nanaware cried out for help in the middle of the night. “Please rescue me,” she could be heard, even as personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) attempted to help her father, Laxman (40), mother Rani (30) and siblings Parshuram (3) and Deepa (12). At one point, she even called for a drink of water. When she was finally pulled out of the rubble around 2.30pm on Tuesday, she was the only person in the family still alive and in a critical condition. On her way to the hospital, she succumbed to injuries. The Nanawares were among 22 people who died in the wall collapse in Malad.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

“Access to the site was difficult for staging rescue equipments, crowd management as well as intermediate rainfall was major hurdles for carrying out rescue equipments. The operation for rescue was still done using portable generators, hydraulic cutters, petrol operated saw and rotary cutters. Search for people who may be trapped is still ongoing,” said PS Rahangdale, chief fire officer, MFB.

According to residents, the wall was built around three years ago and blocked a culvert. With no outlet for the rainwater, it accumulated near the wall, putting pressure on it and leading to the collapse, they claimed. Chandrakala Jadhav, a resident from the slum who lost two members from her family in the incident, said, “I have been living in this area for more than 20 years. It floods every monsoon, but we somehow manage to survive. On Tuesday, the water crossed the wall and started flowing in our houses. Subsequently, the wall collapsed, sweeping away people.”

The BMC said the hutments were illegal. “We will inquire into the incident. It was a compound wall of a BMC-owned reservoir. The land around the area is forest land, and illegal hutments settled on it. The wall fell on these hutments in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep, and hence the number of casualties is high,” said additional municipal commissioner Ashwini Joshi.

Similar tragedies played out in other parts of Mumbai on Tuesday as torrential rainfall battered India’s largest city. Two friends – Gulshad Mumtaz Ali Shaikh, 40, a businessman, and Irfan Shahanbaaz Khan, 38, a driver – suffocated in their car in the Malad subway after water levels rose suddenly, jamming the automatic doors of the vehicle.

Visuals showed people looking on helplessly, and the duo seen kicking the door and window, but finding no way to escape. Khan’s aunt Sana Baig, who raised him after his parents died years ago, said, “Their car got stuck around 11.15pm. They were not able to come out as the doors got locked and jammed. Irfan called Abid, who called his wife, who then called me. I rushed to the spot and saw the subway submerged. The fire brigade and the police came much later and did nothing for four hours, even as my relatives and I kept screaming. When we shouted at them, they shouted back at us. They feared if they jump in, they will either drown or get electrocuted.”

As the municipal authorities rescued people in low-lying areas, several said they were reminded of the deluge of July 26, 2005, when 944 mm of rainfall drowned Mumbai and killed at least 1000 people. Several residents of Malad and Ghatkopar were forced to live out of their houses the entire night after water level in their ground floor flats rose above four feet. Rameshchandra Badani, a resident of Ghatkopar (West), said they were facing water logging issues for more than 40 years. “We have been complaining about this problem for years now, but to no avail. During July 26, the water in our area was around 3-4 feet.”

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Share this article
SHARE
Story Saved
Live Score
OPEN APP
Saved Articles
Following
My Reads
Sign out
New Delhi 0C
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Start 14 Days Free Trial Subscribe Now
Follow Us On