MEANWHILE, BMC HITS SWEET SPOT BY CLEANING MITHI

MUMBAI: The river that flows through the heart of Mumbai — Mithi — has been a cause for concern every year during the monsoon. But, this year, HT’S monsoon audit has found that a major stretch of the river in the western suburbs is in a better state than during previous monsoons. The HT panel gave Mithi a satisfactory 7 out of 10, after it found desilted waters, wider channels, encroachment-free banks and a retaining wall.

In the last two monsoon audits by HT, the river scored a 3 for two stretches at Bandra-kurla Junction and at Kranti Nagar owing to encroachments and water hyacinth or floating shrubs.

Additional municipal commissioner Vijay Singhal said desilting of the river was completed before May 31.

The panel visited two stretches of the river —BKC junction at Bandra (East) and Kranti Nagar at Vile Parle (East) — on June 2. Inspecting the BKC junction stretch, the experts said the river had been desilted properly and encroachments on both sides removed; although some of them could not be razed as they are under litigation. Nandkumar Salvi, former engineer of the stormwater department, said, “A visible bed suggests that silting has been done properly.” The BMC has built a high retaining wall near the stretch where the river passes under the airport runway at Vile Parle and built a new service road there. “The service road is well maintained and drainage lines on it connect to the river,” said Girish Patil, former civic engineer.

On July 26, 2005, the river overflowed after 994 mm of rainfall over a period of 24 hours. This left the city submerged, highlighting the BMC failure.

Citizens again feared the worst on June 19 last year, when sporadic rain brought the water level in Mithi to 2,500 mm.