BMC girds for a grip on monsoon

Satam announced that the electronic boards will be installed within 10 days at nine spots across Mumbai, with information on the latest situation and guidance to the people such as which roads are flooded. These boards will come up at Churchgate, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Haji Ali, JJ Hospital, Mahim Causeway, Sion, Dadar TT, Mumbai Central and WilsonCollege.

The corporation will bear the entire cost of the warning boards. Also, police mobile vans will reach people and vehicle drivers and assist in avoiding water-logged roads.

Satam announced that control rooms manned by police and BMC officials will be set up at selected spots. The locations include Churchgate, Kurla, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Chembur, Bandra, Borivli, Ghatkopar and Dadar. These control rooms will be in constant touch with other public utilities like the BEST and the police to keep people informed about the trouble spots.

BMC officials will be holding talks with the Mumbai Port Trust authorities on Tuesday and request them to allow the BEST, the police and the BMC to operate their vehicles on MbPT roads during such crisis times so that the traffic could be better regulated and allow a faster movement of vehicles, stated Satam.

He added that the police agreed to spare all their vehicles if such a situation arose and also the BEST had made provisions to employ additional 300buses on the roads to carry people. The BMC will also seek the state transport minister’s approval to make available ST buses and keep them as stand-by.

Meanwhile, the BMC will immediately demolish a culvert at Matunga which was responsible for flooding in Matunga. It was constructed by the Central Railway. Satam said, “The BMC had permitted the CR to construct the culvert according to our specifications but later it reduced the diameter which resulted in the flooding of the tracks.” The BMC will also explore the possibility of connecting the sewer lines to the storm water drains (SWDs) which would reduce flooding.

Satam, however, denied that the flooding could have been avoided if the Brimstowad project was implemented before the monsoon. He said, “We have already spent Rs 143 crore on the project but it is not the solution to the problem.”

The Public Works Department was held responsible for failing to complete the widening of the roads in time and remove the waste inside the SWDs leading towater-logging near the highways.