Mumbai: 11 deaths in 5 days, over 100 potholes

The first heavy spell of rain this year has been deadly claiming 11 lives in Mumbai in five days Since last Saturday six of those people including a baby died in four incidents wherein a housepart of a structure collapsed And with just a week of rain the civic body is already acting on about 100 craterrelated complaints registered on various platformsThree people died when trees or branches fell on them Two were electrocuted in an underground drain in GovandiThere were no deaths due to tree or branch fall incidents last year This year the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC has so far received 434 complaints about felling trees big branches in the city Out of these more than 200 complaints were received since last Saturday Around 150 trees were uprooted due to Cyclone Biparjoy in the second week of June Nine people were injured in the three tree or branch fall incidents all of which occurred on private premises ldquoWe give instructions to all private owners to trim and take care of the trees in their compound We provide assistance in tree trimming if they approach usrdquo said an official from the BMCTwo people died when part of this bungalow at Ghatkopar fell last Sunday PicSatej ShindeBMCs dutyThere are approximately 2975 lakh trees in the city Out of these 1563 lakh are on the premises of private institutions while 1125 lakh stand on government land The BMC had sent notices to 4622 societies and government and private entities stating trees on their premises must be trimmed But activists and residents sought concessions in treetrimming chargesZoru Bhathena an activist said ldquoIt is BMCs duty to maintain every tree in the city whether it is on private premises or in public places through its tree authority The BMC collects a tree cess which is included in property tax from every single property irrespective of whether or not it has treesrdquoHe added however tree fall is natural Trees fall in villages and forests too So the reason for tree fall must be checkedLast monsoon from June to September 2022 the BMC received 1374 complaints of tree falling and 28 people were injured But not a single death was reported last year due to thisStructure collapsesThere were six deaths recorded in four different incidents due to a house or part of a structure collapsing All were private properties or slums A family sleeping on the wooden slab of their house at Ganpat Patil Marg in Dahisar West fell after the slab broke on Thursday around 4 pm Aryan Pal a oneandahalfmonthold boy injured his head and was taken to Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivli where he was declared brought dead In another incident Kisan Dulla 35 died after part of the toilet ceiling collapsed at Telugu Samaj Society in Ashok Nagar Kandivli EastTwo senior citizens lost their lives in Vile Parle after their balcony collapsed on SundayTwo people and their dog were killed when they got trapped in a dilapidated Ghatkopar bungalow on SundayTwo people were electrocuted while they were cleaning an underground drainage at Shivaji Nagar Govandi434No of complaints BMC got about felling treesbranches so farOpen and shut case of Andheri subwayThe flooded Andheri subway on June 28 PicAnurag AhireThe subway closed at least twice on Friday after it was flooded with water from surrounding areas The subway was shut around 930 am after it submerged under two feet of water It was opened to traffic after an hour It was again closed around 330 pm and opened at 430 pm due to the same issue Local MLA Amit Satam who visited the spot said that there are five pumps installed at the spot to draw out water during heavy rain On average the subway gets flooded for around 15 days in a year during monsoon and closure at each time varies from 15 minutes to 2 hours depending on quantity of water IIT Bombay has suggested four measures to rectify this and BMC is currently studying their feasibility and cost effectivenessContainer hits Gore flyoverA height barrier under Captain Vinayak Gore flyover at Vile Parle broke when a container rammed itIn the absence of Gokhale bridge vehicular traffic turned to Andheri subway and Vinayak Gore flyover in Vile Parle On Friday morning a container rammed into a height barrier below the flyover near Parle biscuit factory The flyover was not damaged but the height barrier broke down