Mumbai likely to face waterlogging this monsoon too

Mumbai: Mumbai is most likely to face waterlogging this monsoon as well as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has completed only 35 per cent of the de-silting of drains till April 30. The storm water drain (SWD) department of the BMC carries out the crucial pre-monsoon de-silting of major and minor nullahs to avoid waterlogging in the city.

However this time, 95 per cent of staff is still on election duty which will continue till May 23 due to which, the work is much behind schedule, a senior officer from the SWD department said. “It is difficult to achieve the target on time,” he said. The monsoon in Mumbai officially begins from June 3.

The BMC carries out pre-monsoon de-silting every year from April 1 to May 31 so that rainwater can drain out into the sea without hurdles. Althou-gh, the civic body has appointed contractors and started its work on time, a majority of the staff from the SWD department is tasked with Lok Sabha poll duties.

“The sub-engineers who supervise all the work are on zonal duties for election. The staff will be back on full-time civic duty one or two days after the election results are out. We have an extreme staff crunch due to which we could complete only 35 per cent of de-silting,” the officer added.

Mumbai has a total 242 km of major and 420 km of minor nullahs and 1,991 km of road-side drains. The municipal commissioner in his budget spe-ech announced that 160 chronic waterlogging spo-ts are abated which will avoid waterlogging this monsoon. However, if the main work of cleaning the water outlets is not carried out properly, waterlogging is unavoidable.