Mumbai not pumped up for monsoon

Only 2 pumping stations are currently working; 2 are in the pipeline despite work orders being given in 2007; 4 more have been proposed this year

Mumbai not pumped up for monsoon

Only 2 pumping stations are currently working; 2 are in the pipeline despite work orders being given in 2007; 4 more have been proposed this year

The civic body is fiddling as the city drowns. It has been six years since the demonic deluge that claimed 450-odd lives and worked havoc on any semblance of normalcy in the city, and we are still hopelessly at the mercy of fate when it comes to dealing with the infamous Mumbai monsoon.

The pumping station at Irla, built at a cost of Rs 77 crore, has
not been able to stop one of the most common sights every
monsoon a flooded Milan Subway

The two water pumping stations, at Irla and Haji Ali, meant to relieve the city of overspill have failed the test - stagnant water on roads seen after continuous showers since last morning testify to that (see box).

And the remaining two - Cleveland and Love Grove conceived and sanctioned in 2007 along with the other two, exist only on paper as recommendations. The work is yet to start, despite work orders having been issued on October 17, 2007.

Corporator Bhalchandra Shirsat said, "This is negligence on the part of the BMC. They have not started work on the two pumping stations even after four years of sanctioning them."

The civic body also proposed to build water pumping stations at Britannia outfall and Guzderband earlier this year. The objective is that they would help ease water logging in areas like Reay Road, Hindmata, Parel, Lalbaug, Kalachowkie, Juhu Road, Green Street, Daulat Nagar and Khira Nagar.
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These will be in addition to the pumping stations at Mahur and Mogra nullah for which the locations haven't been fixed yet (see box).

Existing pumps fail
Also, mindless littering has clogged up the storm water drains and bunged up the pumping stations at Irla and Haji Ali.
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The BMC has spent Rs 131 crore on cleaning and desilting the city's drainage system but the garbage dumped in the nallahs and other drains has ensured that the water remains on the roads.

Mahesh Narvekar, Chief Officer, BMC's Disaster Cell, said, "People should not throw any kind of material in the drains as it is one of the main reasons for water logging at the 136 chronic spots in the city."

So as rains began whipping the metropolitan last morning, even the two pumping stations the civic authority has managed to build in the past four years failed to prove themselves equal to the task.

"They would give respite only to some of the many areas they were meant to keep free of water logging. On June 11, despite the machines installed to sieve off garbage like plastic, rubber and other junk jamming the drains, manual labour had to employed to remove it," a BMC official said.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Aseem Gupta said, "Garbage got caught up in the Irla pumping station as the water the stations pulls is from open drains.

In fact, tables and chairs were also found in the rubble. But at the Haji Ali pumping station, water comes in from closed drains with no silt in it. So there is less flooding in Worli as compared to suburban Vile Parle and Milan Subway."

Poor capacity
Another reason why the existing pumps have failed is that their design allows them to drain off water only if the rainfall doesn't exceed 50 mm. Beyond that, all their mechanics come a cropper in less than half an hour.

"Within 15-20 minutes there would be knee length water in the city, if it rains over 50 mm per hour," said a BMC official, after Friday's rainfall that recorded over 100 mm in parts of the city within 12 hours.

"There would be water logging whenever it rains over 50 mm as the storm water drains can discharge only water only up to that capacity," he added. The storm water drains nallahs and other channels collect the rain water and carry them to the pumping station from where it is released into the sea.

But some officials are relaxed about the situation, and recommend you do the same. Chief Engineer, Storm Water Drains, BMC, LS Vhatkar said, "After the 2005 deluge, the capacity of the drains was increased from 25 mm to 50 mm.

So there would be water logging at chronic flooding spots in the city. But it rarely rains over 100 mm in the city and there's nothing to worry if there are no high tides."

AMC Gupta said that if the rainfall goes above 50 mm per hour there would be water logging up to knee level and people have to wait for it to subside.

Pumping stations
The pumping stations were proposed in 1993, after Watson Hawksley International was consulted to improve the city's storm water drainage (SWD) system. They had submitted the BRIMSTOWAD (Brihanmumbai Storm Water Drain project) report.

After the 2005 deluge, the Chitale fact-finding committee headed by Madhav Chitale, an expert in water management, was appointed by the state to understand why the city was flooded every monsoon. It comprised of experts from IIT, former engineers of the state and the BMC.

The committee recommended quick implementation of the BRIMSTOWAD project stressing on powerful pumping stations.

The SWD system of Mumbai comprises a hierarchical network of roadside surface drains (about 2,000 km mainly in the suburbs), underground drains and laterals (about 440 km in the island city), major (200 km) and minor nallahs (87 km) and 186 outfalls, which discharge all the surface runoff into rivers and the Arabian Sea.

Pumps in the city
Operational:

Irla
Cost: Rs 77 crore
Catchment Area: 950 hectares (JVPD, DN Nagar, Milan Subway etc)

Haji Ali, Worli
Cost: Rs 58 crore
Catchment area: 400 hectares (Nana Chowk, Peddar Road, Slater Road, Tardeo Road etc)

Proposed:
Love Grove, Worli
Cost: Rs 115 Cr
Catchment Area: 900 acres (Crawford Market, Mohammed Ali Road etc)

Cleveland, Prabhadevi
Cost: Rs 102 cr
Catchment Area: 1100 hectares (Worli, Koliwada, Hindamata, Dadar, Senapati Bapat Marg)

Britannia, Reay Road and Guzderband, Santacruz
Collective cost: Rs 125 crore
Mogra nullah and Mahur in the eastern suburbs; the locations have not yet been finalised, nor is an estimated amount earmarked for the construction of the pumps

Pumps give up
The BMC spent Rs 77 crore on the Irla nullah pumping station and Rs 58 crore on the Haji Ali pumping station which should have been taken care of the water logging in areas like Milan Subway, Andheri (East), Santacruz (West), Nanachowk, Slater Road, Tardeo Road, and part of Pedder Road. However, Milan Subway, Khar Golibar and Andheri Subway were flooded within a couple of hour of Friday's rainfall.u00a0

Rs 77 cr
Cost of constructing the pumping station at Irla with a catchment area of 950 hectares