Only 58% desilting work complete so far

Though the deadline for completing desilting of drains is barely a week away, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has so far managed to complete only 58% of desilting work.

Though the deadline for completing desilting of drains is barely a week away, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has so far managed to complete only 58% of desilting work.

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According to the data available with the Storm Water Drain (SWD) department, a total of 319km drains are to be desilted, of which only 185km have been desilted so far.

The data reveals that 63% of nullah cleaning work was complete in the Western suburb, 55% in the Island city and 58% in the Eastern suburb.

On Tuesday, BMC standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale, who visited 10 nullahs in the Eastern suburb to inspect the progress of desilting work, expressed satisfaction and hopeful of completing work soon. He was accompanied by two corporators — the leader of the house Sunil Prabhu and Prabhakar Shinde, corporator from Mulund. “More than 55% work is complete. And at this pace, we are confident of meeting the May 31 deadline,” said Shewale after his inspection visit.

He also added that according to the guidelines issued by the civic body, the contractors had put up boards near the site where desilting work was in progress, giving details of the work done, their name and numbers. Tuesday’s visit also revealed how the silt removed from the drain was kept at the sides of the drain, which the civic officials said was due to lack of dumping space. BMC officials said it led to delay in completing desilting work.

During his visit, Shewale was surprised to notice that many labourers were not wearing protective gears while manually cleaning the drain. “They were given protective equipment by the contractor, but the labourers don’t wear them,” said Shewale. Shewale also found spots where the walls of the drains had collapsed and has asked the civic body to repair them at the earliest.