First day, first blow: Incessant rain in Mumbai washes away BMC’s tall claims about monsoon preparedness

A few hoursrsquo heavy rain on Wednesday inconvenienced thousands and once again washed away the civic bodyrsquos tall claims about monsoon preparedness Many who had resumed work after the partial lifting of curbs those engaged in essential services or night shifts and those travelling due to an emergency could not reach their destinations As per the India Meteorological Department IMD from 830 am to 530 pm Santacruz received 2206 mm and Colaba received 456 mm rainfallPeople walk in rain at Dadar East PicsBipin KokateThe IMD had issued a warning for heavy rain on Thursday and Friday and the corporation had had a meeting for preparedness on TuesdayA civic official said that there was a high tide of 416 metres at 1143 am because of which the water receded slowly Many areas like Hindmata Sion Kingrsquos circle Kalachowki Dadar TT circle BPT colony Mankhurd railway station Chunabhatti Kurla Andheri subway Air India colony National college Bandra Kalanagar Khar Malad and Milan subways were waterlogged Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said ldquoIf more than 60 mm rainfall occurs in an hour it takes a few hours for the water to drain However the water is draining much faster in the entire metropolis than beforerdquoMayor Kishori Pednekar said ldquoIt is common for the water to accumulate in lowlying areas With the pumping stations it is draining faster in just three to four hoursrdquo She added that additional measures are being taken through site visits to understand the causes of flooding Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray visited the Disaster Control Room at BMC headquarters to review the situationBJP MLA Ashish Shelar said that the BMCrsquos claim of 104 per cent nullah cleaning has been exposed by the first rain ldquoThe BMC spends more than R150 crore on nullah cleaning and yet many nullahs are choked uprdquo he saidDayrsquos rainfallThe locations with the highest rainfall were Chembur Fire Station area 297 mm Vikhroli Fire Station area 274 mm M West ward 269 mm H East ward 262 mm Ravali Camp 259 mm M East ward 258 mm Dharavi Fire Station area 256 mm Santacruz workshop 249 mm Vile Parle 240 mmMost of the rainfall occurred within four to five hours between 8 am and 3 pm The high tide prevented nullahs and rivers from emptying the water into the sea civic officials said The BMC deployed 197 and 189 pumps to flush out water from 1 pm2 pm and 2 pm3 pm From 10 am to 11 am 150 pumps were functioning The six stormwater pumping stations were operating continuously to discharge water into the sea However the capacity of the drains is to flush out only 2530 mm rainwater per hourThe city saw 32 treesmajor branches falling from 8 am to 6 pm 14 incidents of short circuits and six incidents of housepart of house collapsingMayor BMC boss at HindmataHindmata which has seen various projects worth crores to make it floodfree was inundated again on Wednesday During a visit to the spot along with Chahal Pednekar said ldquoOnly 100 metres of work is left to connect the drainage canal at Hindmata to Britannia Pumping Station and will be completed soon It will help drain water fasterrdquo Chahal spoke of a project to store rainwater in underground tanks at St Xavierrsquos Ground and Pramod Mahajan Park ldquoPermission has been obtained on May 31 to create underground channels to connect tanks through the Tata Mill area This will bring relief for Hindmata areardquo he saidChahal also claimed that despite heavy rain road traffic was not disrupted ldquoRamps connecting two flyovers have brought relief This is the first time in 15 years that traffic in Hindmata has not been closed due to rainwater Traffic on Eastern Expressway too is smoothrdquo he saidIn the Western suburbs Andheri Amboli Jogeshwari Oshiwara Goregaon saw waterlogging and resultant traffic jams Traffic was slowmoving on the Western Express Highway from Oberoi mall to Kandivali flyover in the morning peak hoursRains wash away biz TradersAfter Covid19 related curbs traders said that rains created problems for businesses Shops in Hindmata and Vashirsquos APMC market were the worst hitDinesh Trivedi who has a cloth business in Hindmata said ldquoNow that restrictions are lifted waterlogging is haunting us Last year too it caused heavy losses We keep dreaming that this year we wonrsquot face problems but BMC keeps letting us down The BMC has dug up roads to make underground tanks But water collected into those areas No barricades have been placed for safetyrdquo In APMC market Bhimji Bhanushali secretary of Ghee Grains Rice and Oilseeds Merchantsrsquo Association GROMA said ldquoWhen the APMC market shifted from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai 28 years ago many promises were made But on the very first day of rain the market was waterlogged We called the administration but did not get a response In the end we had to stop our workrdquoChildren play on a flooded SV Road in Bandra on Wednesday PicShadab KhanKetan Shah a dry fruits merchant in Dombivli East said ldquoThe water had risen as high as 15 feet Recently boundaries were built at the Dombivli station but that increased waterlogging The civic administration should look into thisrdquo Inputs from Rohit ParikhVoicesVaibhav Harwade Thane residentlsquoI left home early morning It was raining but I never thought I will get stranded and it will be flooded everywhere I am a smalltime businessman and had gone to Matunga for workrsquoVaishali Gurav works at Sanjeevni hospital MaladlsquoI reside in Titwala I managed to reach Dadar from Malad after completing my night duty But even after half an hour a train did not come so I returned to the hospitalrsquoRatnakar Sawant Engineer lsquoItrsquos the first day of rain and once again it has been proved that the BMCrsquos claims of preparedness are an eyewash Otherwise there would have been no waterloggingrsquoPravina Ghanekar on Covid19 duty at Sanjeevni hospital MaladlsquoI didnrsquot think that local services would halt so early So I decided to go home to Rabale after finishing my night shift The hospital provides us with facilities to stay in such scenarios so I returned there amid no train servicesrsquo