Pre-monsoon work on: BMC

With weathermen predicting an early monsoon, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has begun its pre-monsoon preparations.

With weathermen predicting an early monsoon, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has begun its pre-monsoon preparations.

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The corporation has identified 248 water-logging spots in the city, 55 of them marked chronic, including locations such as Dadar, Milan subway and Juhu. The BMC has also written to the traffic police asking for footage obtained from CCTV’s that they have installed at major traffic junctions.

“The footage from these cameras can be used to monitor water-logging and movement on the roads during the monsoon,” said Joint Municipal Commissioner, S S Shinde.

The Traffic Department’s cameras, located at key traffic junctions across the city, cover an area of 200 metres each, their live feed transmitted to the traffic control room at Worli. The BMC has also short-listed 181 locations that may be prone to land slides and have begun issuing notices to locals there.

“The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority and the Collectorate have begun building retaining walls. Work at 54 such locations is complete,” said a BMC official.

To help citizens during the monsoon, the BMC has launched a website www.mumbaimonsoon.com, which will give them detailed information on weather, rainfall, traffic jams and any possible disaster scennario.

To help clear out water-logged locations, 196 dewatering pumps will be installed at 189 locations. Rescue teams are being created, and the BMC has set up mini-control rooms in all 24 ward offices, to be functional this year.

The contour map that the BMC has been working on will not be available this year as well. “We’ve had discussions with defence agencies and the necessary changes were made, but it [the contour map] might not be available this monsoon,” said Chandrakant Watwe, chief engineer, Storm Water Drains.