No place to dump muck, BMC's nullah desilting may not work

You may have to cope with yet another messy monsoon, with flooded streets and over-flowing drains.

You may have to cope with yet another messy monsoon, with flooded streets and over-flowing drains.

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Only 30% of the city's nullahs have been desilted so far, but the BMC has run out of space to dump the silt and civic officials are now scouting for alternative plots. If the BMC does not find another spot soon, there is a real chance that the silt will sit on the side of the roads and and eventually flow back into the nullahs during the rains.

Last year, the BMC removed 3.97 lakh cubic metres of silt from the nullahs by May 31.

This year, the suburban collector allocated a 20-acre plot in Madh, Malad, for dumping silt. The BMC had also decided to use the Mulund dumping ground for the purpose. However, these arrangements have proved to be insufficient.

According to civic estimates, about 3,500 metric tonnes of silt is being removed from the nullahs every day as compared to last year's 9,000 metric tonnes a day. Of this, around 2,000 metric tonnes were being sent to Malad, the rest to Mulund. LS Vhatkar, chief engineer, storm water drains, said: "Though there is less silt in the nullahs this year, the Malad plot is nearing capacity. As we don't have the option of dumping silt in the Deonar dump yard [it has been partly closed], there's paucity of space."

Mohan Adtani, additional municipal commissioner, said the BMC would come up with a solution in the next few days. "There is some space left at Malad. We are also trying to shift some garbage from Mulund to the new yard in Kanjurmarg [it has not been prepared for the dumping of silt] so that we can put the silt in Mulund."