Despite the second wave of Covid-19 hitting the city and many labourers leaving Mumbai after lockdown-like restrictions were imposed, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) pre-monsoon preparedness is on track, officials said.
The civic body’s major infrastructure works like road repairs and construction, enhancement of storm water drains and flood-mitigation works and nullah cleaning will be completed before the first week of June.
According to the BMC data, currently 368 road repair and reconstruction work are on across the city. Of these, the BMC has set a target of finishing 211 road repairs by May 31, while the remaining 157 road works will be brought to a safe stage so that during monsoon it does not cause inconvenience to traffic.
In Mumbai, monsoon arrives in the first week of June and the BMC aims to finish the pre-monsoon infrastructure work by May 31. For roads and nullah works, the deadline is June 7.
“There is no impact as such on any infrastructure project. These were (lockdown-like restrictions and surge in Covid-19 cases) anticipated, so we issued instructions to contractors to retain the labourers and make arrangement for their accommodation. All the work is on as per the plan,” said P Velrasu, additional municipal commissioner, (projects).
He added, “We have completed almost 60 percent of the physical target of all the storm water drain widening and repair works and the remaining work will be done by June 7. Everyday monitoring is being done.”
The BMC is also taking up several crucial projects like construction of underground water storage tanks to abate flooding at Hindmata, another work of widening of drains is on at Gandhi Market. These two spots are worst affected in every monsoon as they get flooded quite fast.
“Important projects like flood mitigation works at Hindmata and Gandhi Market are in progress and expected to be completed before monsoon. We have also taken up several works to ensure that there is no flooding at subways in western suburbs,” Velarasu said.
Officials said restoration work of the portion of Malabar Hill that had collapsed last monsoon is also expected to be completed by the end of May.
The BMC data shows that the cleaning of major nullahs has been completed up to 68 percent, while about 50 percent work has been completed for Mithi river. As per the norms, before monsoon, the BMC is supposed to finish 75 percent of nullah desilting, 10 percent during monsoon and the remaining 15 percent after monsoon.
For the major nullahs, the civic body is supposed to remove 3.07 lakh metric tonne silt before monsoon. For Mithi river, the BMC this year has set a target of removing more silt compared to last year so that flooding can be averted.
Officials said 405 flooding spots have been identified by the BMC, of which 171 have been eliminated. Before monsoon, work on 125 flooding spots will be completed.
