Pre-monsoon work deadline may extend to May 31

The civic body has just 10 days left to get the city ready for the monsoon, but less than half the cleaning and desilting work has been done so far.

The civic body has just 10 days left to get the city ready for the monsoon, but less than half the cleaning and desilting work has been done so far.

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Municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar has fixed May 15 as the deadline to complete desilting all nullahs (drains that carry flood water out of the city).

Civic procedure requires that 70% of the silt in the nullahs be cleared before the monsoon, 20% during the monsoon and the remaining 10% after the monsoon.

“Work started last Friday and we have completed 10% to 12% of the work. We are confident that we will finish it soon,” said Laxman Vhatkar, chief engineer, storm water drain (SWD) department.

Standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale said the deadline might be extended to May 31.

On Thursday, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray, Mayor Shraddha Jadhav, Shewale and officials from the BMC’s SWD department visited eight nullahs in the eastern suburbs to review the work. “The work is in progress and is satisfactory,” Thackeray said.

The BMC allots the contract for annual desilting of the city’s nullahs once in two years. In 2009 and 2010, it spent more than Rs90 crore, while for the next two years (2011-12 and 2012-13), it has sanctioned Rs131 crore.