Uddhav Thackeray, BMC chief blame skies

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Shiv Sena, which controls the civic body, on Wednesday blamed the rain gods squarely for the inconveniences caused to Mumbaikars by Tuesday’s deluge that had brought the city to a standstill with flooded streets and disrupted rail-road commute.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta claimed that they have increased the water-carrying capacity of storm water drainage from 25mm to 50mm per hour. However, in many areas it rained more than 300mm in an hour. The BMC commissioner said that the capacity can be further increased, but it will come with huge costs and also large-scale relocation of encroachments.

Comparing the heavy monsoon of Tuesday with the July 26, 2005 floods, Mr Thackeray said the situation has improved in the last 12 years.

“As compared to July 26, the losses were less. The BMC has brought improvements in the city. However, the natural rainfall was so high in some of the areas that waterlogging was inevitable. We have to understand the geographical location of the city. Some parts are low lying and create problem during the high tide when the water comes back instead of going to the sea,” Mr Thackeray told reporters a day after the deluge.

Appreciating the BMC’s work, Mr Thackeray said nullah widening has been done in the last few years. But the question remains on how many times the BMC will widen the nullahs. “The BMC has increased the capacity of the nullahs from 25 mm to 50 mm. But how much more we should increase is the problem. Also, the widening of nullahs is costly. We are fortunate that there was no cloudburst yesterday,” he said.

Mr Mehta also refused allegations that nullah widening had been incomplete and shoddy. “We have increased the existing capacity of nullah cleaning. We have monitored the work,” the commissioner added.