Civic body to act on water-logging spots from October to avoid flooding next year
After the city and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) got battered in rains this monsoon, the civic body now claims it will start fixing the chronic flooding spots it identified in Mumbai from October. The corporation hopes it will minimise flooding in 77 of the 105 remaining water-logging spots in the city.
The BMC had drafted a list of 225 chronic flooding spots after the August 29 deluge last year and introduced remedial measures for same. Following the rains, the water-logging spots in the city jumped from 66 in 2016 to 225 the year later. These spots were identified by seven deputy municipal commissioners, 24 ward officers in coordination with railways and traffic police.
Before this year’s monsoon, the civic body finished work at 120 spots. Out of the remaining 105 flooding spots, 55 are in the island city (the highest), followed by 33 in the eastern suburbs and 17 in the western suburbs. According to civic officials, work orders for 16 spots have already been given while 61 are in the tendering process.
Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta, in his monthly meeting, asked the Storm Water Drain (SWD) department to finish the tendering process by September and begin work by October this year.
The BMC is expected to undertake 6,208 repair works at these 77 spots across the city and it includes work categories such as storm drain augmentation, construction of drains, the addition of floodgates, remodelling of drains, and upgrading culverts.
Some areas where work was completed included Masjid Bunder — where floodgates were fixed — Deonar Municipal Colony and Devkabai Chawl in Ghatkopar, where drain augmentation was undertaken, and at Tardeo market, where additional stormwater drains were laid.