The Britannia pumping station has become the fifth in the line of eight pumping stations to be commissioned in the city.
The Britannia pumping station has become the fifth in the line of eight pumping stations to be commissioned in the city. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) still has to build three more pumping stations to make the city free from flooding during heavy rains, work on these pumping stations are moving at snail’s pace.
Following the 26/7 deluge in 2005, the Madhav Chitale committee had proposed the construction of eight pumping stations under the Brihanmumai Storm Water Drain (Brimstowad) project that was announced to increase the capacity of drains. While the pumping stations at Irla (Juhu), Haji Ali, Lovegrove and Cleveland Bunder (both at Worli) and Britannia (Reay Road) have been commissioned, the remaining three at Gazdarbund (Khar), Mogra (Santa Cruz) and Mahul are yet to be completed.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray inaugurated the Britannia pumping station at Reay Road on Wednesday. Civic chief Ajoy Mehta said that the Gazdarbund pumping station would also be commissioned soon.
“The pending work for Gazdarbund pumping station at Khar (west) will be started soon. We are hopeful that the project would be complete in the next four to five months,” he said.
The works of Mogra and Mahul pumping stations have been stuck due to environmental clearances. Both the projects require large-scale destruction of mangroves. According to civic officials, a total of 6,000 square metres of mangroves need to be destroyed for the construction of these pumping stations.
At Mahul, we are now planning to build a pumping station on saltpan land.
The process of acquiring the land will be completed in couple of months, said Mr Mehta.Both the pumping stations, once completed, would give relief to water logging areas in Kurla, Chembur, Mahul, Santa Cruz and Vile Parle.
