Waterlogging spots rise to 336; BMC readies dewatering pumps

Mumbai’s waterlogging spots have increased to 336 from 273 during last year’s monsoon. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), however, said it has taken preventive

Mumbai’s waterlogging spots have increased to 336 from 273 during last year’s monsoon. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), however, said it has taken preventive steps at 266 spots, while work was in progress at the remaining 70 spots.

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While some of the major flood-prone spots in the island city are Geeta Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar, Sandhurst Road, Nana Chowk, Matunga, Parel TT, Hindamata, Gandhi Market, Janata Colony and Dhobi Ghat, for the eastern suburbs, they are LBS Road, Shell Colony, Tilak Nagar, Mankhurd Subway, Deonar Abbatoir, Shanti Campus.

There will be 120 dewatering pumps functional to pump out water into the stormwater drain system in the island city. Two of the pumps will be set up at KEM Hospital and Sion Hospital, both major Covid facilities, located near low-lying areas.

In the eastern suburbs, the civic body has identified 100 dewatering pumps.

Major flood-prone spots in western suburbs are Kala Nagar, Khar subway, Milan subway, Andheri-Kurla Road, Shastri Nagar, Malad subway, Poisar subway, Borivli subway, and Dahisar subway. The BMC has planned to use 105 dewatering pumps for these spots.

According to municipal commissioner IS Chahal, BMC has identified a total of 336 flooding spots in the city — 125 in the island city, 97 in the eastern suburbs and 124 in the western suburbs. Of these, 54 are localised flooding spots. So far, he said, BMC has tackled 266 flooding spots and is in the process of tackling 70 others before monsoon kicks in over the next few days.

Over the past five years, the flooding spots in Mumbai have increased from 40 in 2014, to 273 in 2019. During the municipal commissioner’s budget speech of 2014-15, he had listed 40 flooding spots. However, in the budget speech of 2017-18, the number increased to 66, and in 2018-19, they were upped to 146. However, before the monsoon of 2018, BMC declared that there were 225 flooding spots, and the number further shot up to 273 after 48 flooding spots were added to the list during the monsoon of 2018.

In February 2020, the BMC budget, presented by the then civic chief Praveen Pardeshi, listed 273 waterlogging spots for the city, of which work on 69 was pending.

Meanwhile, BMC has also installed 2,772 protective grills under manhole covers across Mumbai, of which 2,008 are in the island city, 203 in the western suburbs, and 399 in the eastern suburbs.

In 2017, renowned doctor Deepak Amrapurkar died after falling down an open manhole near Elphinstone. It was later investigated that a local had removed the manhole cover to quicken the pace of water draining out of a waterlogged street. Following this, BMC had decided to install protective grills.