Brace for floods this year too

Mumbai: Around 40 'chronic flooding spots' and 213 'flooding spots' but the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) lacks long-term plans to solve the issue. Experts say British-era storm water drains must be upgraded and pumping stations must be operational quickly. 

    A monsoon-trend study by former deputy commissioner Prakash Sanglikar shows that there's heavy rainfall mainly in suburban areas, particularly Mulund, Dindoshi, Marol, Goregaon and Borivli. They are more vulnerable to water-logging as the Mithi, Poisar, Oshiwara and Dahisar rivers flow through the region. "There has been no improvement in the river system," said Sanglikar. 

    The drain system cannot transport rain water, say experts. BMC's longest pending project, BRIMSTOWAD, first tabled in 1986 at a cost of Rs 600 crore, seeks to overhaul the century-old storm water drainage system consisting of major drains (210 km), minor nullahs (144 km), underground nullahs (174 km) and Britishera arch drains (528 km) and build eight storm water pumping stations. The project hopes to increase the capacity of drains of 25 mm rainfall in an hour to 50 mm and the run-off coefficient from 0.5 to 1. The project was revived after the 26/7 deluge and today the complete project costs Rs 3,535 crore. Nine out of 20 works under phase I and 18 out of 38 under phase II are left. 

    Of the eight pumping stations proposed, only two have been completed at Irla nullah and Haji Ali in 2009. 

Everyday, I see someone or other dump garbage into the Irla Nullah, which is across my college. Yet, I have not seen a single person being fined 

Rajiv Parabh | MITHIBAI COLLEGE 

STUDENT 

Garbage can be seen floating in the nullah in our area, choking its flow. If there is heavy rainfall, our society will surely get flooded Dhaval Shah | VAKOLA RESIDENT