Contractor warned BMC about flooding in Parel

The recent inundation in areas around Parel, Hindmata and parts of Byculla could have been averted if civic officials had paid heed to a warning by a contractor to remove blockages in drains.

The recent inundation in areas around Parel, Hindmata and parts of Byculla could have been averted if civic officials had paid heed to a warning by a contractor to remove blockages in drains.

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Hindustan Times now has documents which show that RPS Mehta, one of the two contractors responsible for clearing the blocked drains which led to the flooding, had alerted senior civic officials, including BMC chief Sitaram Kunte about the necessity to remove blockages.

“Unless the contractor on downward stream removes their pardhi (blockage wall), we can’t remove ours or else it will cause high level of water stagnation in drain. If these walls are not removed, they can cause disastrous flooding in the Parel area, especially,” says a letter by Mehta addressed to senior officials in May.

HT has documents which show that everyone from the deputy chief engineer of storm water drains, who has now been suspended, to additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta and Kunte, knew about the warning.