96% of desilting work over, says BMC

Mumbai: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) senior engineers have said that 96 percent of the pre-monsoon distillation work has been completed on all major pits in Mumbai. Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects). He said more than 68 percent of the desalination on the Mitti River has been completed so far and 59 percent of the desilting has been completed within the minor.

 

He said more than 4 lakh megatonnes of soil were being removed across Mumbai and 2.74 lakh metric tonnes were being removed from the Mithi River. The BMC had identified about 405 flood-prone areas ahead of the monsoon. Various low-lying areas have also been identified, officials said. Diversion pumps are stored on standby for this purpose.

 

BMC also undertook repairs to expand the drainage network. In the western suburbs, we have identified 79 low-lying areas, of which desilting and repair work has been completed in more than 55 locations. Therefore, we expect less flooding and flooding this year,” an official said. BMC also builds five groundwater storage tanks to reduce flooding. The tanks are equipped to hold water for more than three hours and each tank can hold one lakh liters of water at a time, a senior official said. 

 

They said two of the five tanks would be installed in chronic floodplains - Hindmata Junction, Gandhi Market on Babasaheb Ambedkar Road. In addition to these two tanks, BMC has installed two holding tanks at Pramod Mahajan Udyan (Elphinstone Road) and St. Xavier's Ground in Parel. Officials said the tanks on Elphinstone Road and Parel would be large enough to carry the water collected to the sea or be used for drinking purposes after being properly treated. We also found chronic flooding in the eastern and western suburbs. 

 

“After seeing the results of this project during the rainy season, we will be able to build similar tanks in these places in the future,” said another municipal official. The construction of tanks in Hindmatha and Gandhi markets is expected to be completed before the 2021 monsoon and the remaining three will be completed by the 2022 monsoon, officials said. Construction of identified sites in the suburbs will begin soon after the monsoon, she said. It's over.