BMC completes 25% of pre-monsoon desilting work in Mumbai

Mumbai: Two weeks after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) fast-tracked its annual pre-monsoon desilting drive in the city, senior civic officials on Wednesday said that they have been able to achieve 25% of their target by now, and by the first week of May, they intend to cross the 50% mark.

Following complaints from former corporators and civic activists, municipal commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal on April 14 ordered that desilting work will be carried out for 24 hours in Mumbai across all the municipal wards so that the annual target could be achieved by the end of May.

The city has an entire drainage network of 2,000 kilometres and the pre-monsoon desilting work includes the removal of sludge from the major and minor drains and nullahs to ensure smooth flow of water during monsoon, a precautionary measure against water-logging.

“Before monsoon, we have to finish 75% of the desilting work and the remaining 25% of the work are being carried out after the monsoon arrives. We have already achieved 25% of our target and by the end of April or early May, we will complete 50% of the target and by May 15 around 65% of the total target will be completed,” said a senior civic official.

“We have earmarked all the major flood-prone zones in the city. The desilting work is being carried out for 24 hours every day and we are using amphibious machines and have deployed additional manpower to clear the sludges in all the major rivers and drains in the city including the Mithi and Oshiwara Rivers and flood-prone areas like the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC),” the official said.

Furthermore, civic officials mentioned that BMC is creating an official website where all the real-time data related to desilting work including pictures and videos will be uploaded so that there is transparency maintained between the citizens and the civic body.

“The website will also have features, in which citizens can raise issues related to desilting and clearing sludges from drains. The areas could be geo-tagged in the website following which the problem will be resolved at the ward level,” said officials.

The BMC officials maintained that the development of the website is ongoing and that it will be released in the first week of May.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, Ashwini Bhide, additional municipal commissioner and in-charge of the Eastern Suburbs of the city inspected the ongoing desilting work in her area.

Usually, the desilting work in Mumbai starts by the last week of March, however, this year, the BMC was able to start the work by April 6, onwards. Municipal commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal had said that owing to the dissolvement of the statutory committees in the civic body due to the tenures of municipal corporators being expired, it took the civic body more time than usual in clearing these proposals and placing work orders for the same.

BMC’s flood and risk management

In order to involve a maximum number of citizens in terms of flood and risk management during monsoon, the BMC has organised a two-day workshop at Sahyadri Guest House in Malabar Hill on April 28 and 29.

The workshop, “Flood Risk in Mumbai ‘’ will cover some prevalent topics like climate change, Mumbai’s hydrology, and various information related to the existing storm water drainage (SWD) structure of the city. Mumbai guardian minister Aaditya Thackeray will speak at this event on Thursday and various private stakeholders including urban planners, Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), and climate experts will participate in the workshop.