Gearing up for the monsoon, departments across Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have been at work to implement a slew of measures to prevent flooding in Mumbai this season.
Drawing lessons from the previous year when a historically early onset of monsoon on May 26 caught the administration unaware and underprepared, the BMC set an early deadline for several works like procurement and deployment of flood mitigation machinery. However, this year too, May 31 was earmarked as the final deadline for completion of pre-monsoon works like tree trimming exercise and desilting of Mumbai’s major and minor drains as well as the Mithi river.
With the May 31 target coming to close and southwest monsoon fast approaching, The Indian Express takes stock of the BMC’s monsoon preparedness to assess the city’s readiness for the upcoming season.
Mithi river desilting incomplete
An annual exercise, desilting of Mumbai’s big and minor storm water drains as well as the Mithi river is carried out by the BMC to increase the holding capacity of the waterbed and prevent flooding. Of the total target, the civic body aims to extract 80 percent of silt during pre-monsoon period, 10 percent during monsoon and 10 percent during the post-monsoon period.
This year, the BMC had set a May 31 deadline to extract 8.41 lakh metric tonnes of silt as a part of its pre-monsoon desilting exercise across the city’s minor, major drains and Mithi river.
However, the civic body has only been able to achieve 69 percent of its total desilting target at Mithi river until Sunday (May 31) morning.
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In contrast, the BMC has achieved 100 percent of its target for the city’s major and minor nullahs.
When contacted, a senior official told The Indian Express, “We are aiming to achieve 75 percent of our target for Mithi river before the onset of monsoon. During the desilting exercise, special focus was laid on clearing silt from the flood prone pockets of the river. While 100 percent of the target would have been ideal, we are confident that even 75 percent of the target conditions of flooding at Mithi river will be mitigated.”
Desilting of Mithi river is crucial to avoid overflow of river water and deluge in nearby slum pockets as well as major routes in the vicinity. Last year, for instance, slum pockets of Kranti Nagar were inundated after waters at Mithi river breached the danger levels and overflowed into the streets. Even as desilting of Mithi typically commences on March 1, this year, the work was delayed owing to delayed appointment of contractors over lack of adequate interest from bidders.
Tree trimming and removal of dead trees
With reports of tree collapses amidst gusty winds reported during the monsoon season, the BMC carries out a pre-monsoon tree trimming exercise across the city. This year, the BMC set a target to prune 84,819 trees between April and May 31.
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Data shared by the BMC on Sunday showed that so far, the civic body has pruned 67,274 trees.
On May 31, the civic body at the behest of the Central Railways carried out a special drive to trim branches of trees leaning over railway tracks and power lines during a special megablock. “During monsoon season, branches of trees along the railway line can fall over railway lines and tracks due to wind. This can disrupt rail services and put the passengers at risk. Therefore, we executed a special drive to eliminate any such risks,” the BMC on Sunday said.
Senior officials told The Indian Express that the tree trimming exercise will continue even past the deadline, if authorities and citizens identify new dangerous trees which could pose a threat to passersby. Earlier on May 10, a tree collapse in Khar critically injured two girls of whom one, Aarika Srivastava, succumbed to her injuries after a week long battle.
Mastic cookers for potholes
Come monsoons, heavy downpour leads to surfacing of potholes across Mumbai’s roads. To make the city’s roads pothole free, the BMC in 2022 launched the Rs 17,000 crore mega-concretisation project which seeks to pave 700 km of roads in concrete.
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However, with only 80 percent of the total concretisation target achieved until now, several asphalt roads may continue to experience potholes amidst wear and tear. Dewatering pumps
Dewatering pumps
Senior officials confirmed that the BMC has installed 547 dewatering pumps across the city’s flood prone pockets this year.
Additionally, the BMC has also made provisions for 10 vehicle mounted pump systems to tackle water logging in low lying areas. Equipped with smart monitoring systems, the pumps are situated in flood-prone pockets and operationalised to flush accumulated rainwater into the nearest drains during heavy downpours.
Last year, the BMC had deployed 510 pumps in the city after the initially proposed 417 pumps proved ineffective during extreme rains that lashed Mumbai on May 26, 2025. In 2024, the municipal body had pressed 482 dewatering pumps. The increase in the total number of pumps deployed comes along the heels of the increase in total flood-prone pockets of the city. Data shows Mumbai has witnessed a 10 percent spike in flood-prone locations over the past year with 498 flooding spots identified in Mumbai this year, against 453 in the previous year.
