Friday’s rain was also the highest recorded over 24 hours in November in Mumbai. Amit Chakravarty

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to install gate pumps on storm water drain outfalls in the city. Taking note of the change in pattern of rainfall and high tide effect, the civic body hopes to prevent waterlogging in low-lying areas by installing the gate pumps. The BMC has made the proposal in its budget 2020-21.

“At storm water drain outfalls that go into either the sea or creeks, such gate pumps can be installed. This won’t require much land as gate pumps can be installed within nullahs and also there won’t be a need to cut mangroves,” an official said.

“When there is high tide and heavy rainfall, water receding from storm water drains slows down and causes flooding especially in low-lying areas. So our plan is to stop the tide water from entering the drain network and then with the help of gate pumps, the water can be sent into the sea or creeks,” the official said.

Another official from the storm water drain department said, “If we plan to construct any pumping stations, then paucity of land is the main hurdle. Also, many times it gets stuck in litigation and environment issues. Pump gates will be the easiest option to deal with in this situation and reduce the tidal effect on our storm water drain network.”

There are 85 major outfalls in the island city area, which drain out to the Arabian Sea directly ? eight at Mahim Creek and 12 at Mahul Creek. In the western suburbs, there are 29 outfalls draining directly into the Arabian Sea while 14 drain into Mithi river that eventually joins Mahim Creek. In the eastern suburbs, 14 outfalls discharge in Thane Creek while six discharge in Mahul Creek and eight in Mahim Creek.

The BMC has made a provision of Rs 912 crore in the 2020-21 budget for the storm water drain department to improve the city’s drain network. Mumbai has six functioning pumping stations and two more at Mahul and Mogra are in the pipeline. The project was stuck due to permission required for cutting of mangroves. Now land acquisition process is on.