MUMBAI, August 25: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is not willing to say sorry. For the hardships caused to Mumbaiites on August 22 and 23, when heavy rains led to a complete collapse of normal life in the city, it has blamed the "the unprecedented forces of nature" and the railways.A detailed statement issued by BMC today, however, says nothing about its failure to implement the Brihanmumbai Storm Water Drain (Brimstowad) project, which entailed setting up of three pumping stations to flush out accumulated water. A British firm, Watson and Hawksle, which prepared the project report at a cost of Rs 6 crore in 1993, had suggested that pumping stations be set up at Worli, Haji Ali and Cleaveland Bandar. Had this been done, water logging could have been prevented on August 22.However, BMC is not willing to accept this. ``Even if the present capacity of the storm water drains (one inch of water per hour) was doubled under Brimstowad, it would have been insufficient to tackle the problem,'' the statement says.The BMC statement also points out that the loss of life and extreme hardships caused to the citizens due to the complete collapse of transport system must be treated as just another ``unprecedented event'' in the life of Mumbaiites. The statement explains: ``Mumbai received 15 per cent of its total annual rainfall within 24 hours on August 22 and 23. In two days the city recorded 10 inches of rainfall and the suburbs 14 inches. The existing network of storm water drains in the city is definitely incapable of dealing with such volumes.''The statement further explains that about eight to nine inches of rainfall was recorded from 12 pm to 3 pm on August 22. ``With the high tide occurring at 2.45 pm, there was no way the water could have been drained out. On the contrary, it was pushed back into the storm water drains leading to heavy flooding,'' it adds.In its annual programme of cleaning storm water drains, the BMC had cleared 2.45 lakh cubic metres of silt at a cost of Rs 4.56 lakh up to June 15. ``Owing to this, the city did not witness any problems between June 16 and 22 when 25 per cent of the season's total rainfall was recorded,'' the statement says. ``The BMC has already paid Rs 10.44 crore to the railways to clean culverts, and it has always co-ordinated and helped the railways in the work. However, due to their indifferent attitude, nullahs and culverts at Lower Parel, Currey Road, Masjid, Matunga Road, Bhandup and Chembur were not cleaned on time,'' the statement points out.
