MUMBAI: In the runup to the civic polls, the Shiv Sena-ruled BMC appears to be wooing Mumbaikars by promising to resolve flooding issues at 386 spots in the city before monsoon. Civic officials said they have already completed work at 171 spots and prepared a detailed plan for the rest. They will soon make a presentation on the issue to chief minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
On Thursday, Yuva Sena president and Maharashtra environment minister Aaditya Thackeray along with transport minister Anil Parab took a review meeting of BMC’s preparedness to resolve the flooding issue where they also discussed the possibility of constructing an underground tank.
The meeting was organized at the BMC headquarters where the municipal commissioner and his officials made a presentation to the ministers about the measures the civic body has adopted to attend to all the flooding spots.
Activists said every year BMC comes up with some “superficial” plan to resolve the issue but fails due to lack of longterm planning despite spending thousands of crores.
Meanwhile, Amin Patel, Congress MLA from Mumbadevi, met with Sanjeev Jaiswal, additional municipal commissioner (AMC), earlier this week demanding explanation about heavy flooding in south Mumbai during the previous monsoon and what measures have been adopted to resolve the issue.
Heavy rainfall in July-September 2020 caused floods in the city on several occasions and south Mumbai witnessed more waterlogging due to unpreceded rainfall. BMC had said it had fixed the chronic flooding spot at Hindmata by widening the drains, but that too flooded almost during every heavy rainfall and it took hours for water to recede. Similarly, at Gandhi Market in Sion where BMC had put a long overhead pipeline to take flood water till the drainage network nearby with the help of pumps failed to reduce flooding.
R Sridhar, who lives near Gandhi Market, said, “A few years ago they had planned to lay an additional drain in my area, but abandoned it midway.”
Since the CM’s office is monitoring the work, BMC is trying hard to resolve most flooding spot issues this time. Deputy municipal commissioner Sanjay Darade was given the task to prepare a detailed plan for each of the flooding spots and required measures. He submitted the plan to additional municipal commissioner (projects) P Velrasu recently before his retirement on December 31, which will be presented before the CM.
Javed Juneja, Congress corporator from Nagpada who attended the meeting, said, “Even Nair Hospital flooded last year, apart from Nagpada.”
Meanwhile, Aaditya Thackeray told BMC officials to keep “cleanliness and beautification” aspects in mind while executing any infrastructure works, be it roads, footpaths, brigdes or solid waste management.