BMC’s, Railways’ Claims Of Being Prepared For The Monsoon Fail First Major Test Of The Season; City Stands Still For Most Of Friday

Two-year-high downpour strands city

 If Mumbai felt it had stopped raining in the last few weeks, on Friday, it poured. The rain was lesser than the 2009 record, but enough to prove that the authorities were caught napping despite claiming to have made the city of dreams rainready for the year.

    Rainfall between Thursday and Friday was the highest recorded in a single day so far this monsoon. While Colaba received 182.9 mm between 8.30 pm on Thursday and Friday, Santa Cruz received a good 206.2 mm of rainfall. After the extended lull last month, the rains were reactivated on Wednesday when the monsoon trough extending from Rajasthan to the Bay of Bengal shifted back to its position. "The trough had moved northwards, which caused the lull. But since it shifted back, it has been causing developments in various parts of the country, which in turn have caused the rains," said V K Rajeev, director of weather forecast, Indian Meteorological Department, Mumbai. 
    Widespread rainfall occurred not just over Maharashtra, but also over Gujarat region, coastal Karnataka and Kerala, the Met department said. In Mumbai, a very strong offshore trough was responsible for the incessant rainfall. "The offshore trough had formed earlier in the week due to the monsoonal trough and was gaining strength. Good cloud cover caused rain on Wednesday. 
    But by Thursday evening, the activity strengthened further and Friday's rain was the result," said an official from the IMD. 
SYSTEM TRASHED 
    The rainfall was only about 21% of the 944 mm that Santa Cruz received between July 26 and 27, 2005, but the city was reminded of the deluge that brought it to a standstill. Despite assurances by the civic body that the city was better equipped to tackle any heavy rain this year, several areas from Bandra to Andheri went under water because of failure in the automatic silt-clearing system of the Irla pumping station. "A lot of garbage got accumulated in the system. Due to this, there was a breakdown of the system and water did not flow out. Although pumps were working well, the problem arose because of the accumulated plastic. Due to this, the pumping station was of no help. We started cleaning the garbage soon after," said additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta. 
    Severe waterlogging was recorded in Juhu, Khar, Santa Cruz, Vile Parle, Andheri, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Dadar, Kalachowkie, Vikhroli, Ghatkopar, Sion, Chembur, Parel, Jogeshwari, and Kanjurmarg. By Friday evening, BMC's disaster control cell had received complaints of two wall collapses, whereas 13 trees fell in the same period across the city. 
    Khar's Jay Bharat colony was flooded for the second time this monsoon. Surindra Khubchandani, a resident, said nothing had changed. "Every year, it is the same situation. Despite repeated complaints to the BMC, no concrete action has been taken as yet. Drains under the railway tracks have not been cleaned. The BMC has always passed the buck on the railways," she said. Residents of Jay Bharat colony had to incur huge losses — submerged cars and ruined electronic items. "No pumps have been installed in this area. Residents had also volunteered to supervise cleaning of the drains," said Anandini Thakoor, chairperson, H West Ward Federation. 
    The situation was not any different in Dadar and Sion. Gandhi market was worst-affected. BR Ambedkar Road, declared as a "zero tolerance VIP" road by the BMC was inundated. "On Friday morning, residents of had to wade through knee-deep water. Traffic diversions near Sion and Dadar added to the woes. Though this is a low-lying area, I fail to understand why the BMC doesn't install powerful machines to pump out water at a faster rate. The existing machines are inadequate," said Nikhil Desai, Agni co-ordinator. "The drains meant to flush out flood waters are in a dilapidated condition. An underground pipeline which burst around 15 days ago worsened the water logging situation in the area. I lodged a complaint with the ward office but no action has been taken as yet," he added. 
LACK OF PREPAREDNESS 
    After the downpour, citizens as well as corporators came down heavily on the civic administration for its failure. Juhu corporator Adolf D'souza said it was a shame that the pumping station was not serving any purpose. "The administration is blaming the garbage thrown by people for the breakdown, but one needs to know what the real problem is. There could be a technical problem which the administration is reluctant to reveal. I have demanded that CCTVs be installed at the pumping stations," he said. "The problem is also with manhole covers. Earlier, the covers were lifted during rains for the water to flow out, but now, it is not being done," he added. 
    At the civic standing committee, corporators lashed out at the BMC. "The administration has claimed it is prepared for the monsoon. But that is not seen on the ground," said Shiv Sena leader and corporator Sunil Prabhu. 
    Gupta, however, said that "typically there will be flooding and water logging if it rains over 50 mm continuously on a particular day. The geography of the city is such that localised flooding cannot be helped if it rains heavily," he said. 
TIDING OVER 
    Mumbaikars were however, lucky that Friday's heavy rains did not coincide with the high tides. Early on Friday morning, at 5.14 am, when the tide was 3.73 metres, there was heavy rainfall. At 5.21 pm, tide was as high as 4.07 metres but fortunately, the rain had eased by then. 
    The city can expect similar weather on Saturday, says the weather bureau. "The cloud cover is likely to last for another 24 hours, after which the activity will weaken. There doesn't seem to be another activity building up, which means that from Sunday, the rainfall will taper off," said Rajeev.

SEA IN THE CITY: Andheri subway was in knee-deep water early on Friday morning itself