Addl civic chief reviews where BMC went right and where more effort is needed to mitigate waterlogging woes; but costly solution may not work in case of heavy rainfall
Additional Municipal Commissioner P Velrasu (in blazer) reviews the work at St Xavier’s Ground on Friday
The BMC managed to keep Hindmata flood-free this year at a cost of Rs 110 crore, and additional work of R15 crore is in the pipeline. However, the solution may not be effective in case of 60 to 70 mm rain per hour for more than two hours as this year both the tanks were almost full during heavy showers.
The civic body also completed the work to dewater Gandhi Market area at a cost of Rs 20 crore, but the work for Mahul pumping station, which would bring relief to Sion, Chembur, Wadala and Matunga, got halted yet again.
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Also read: Mumbai: Sion and Matunga flooded this time, no respite next year, too
Additional Municipal Commissioner P Velrasu took a review of the work at King’s Circle and Hindmata on Friday. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has constructed two tanks—one each at Pramod Mahajan Kala Park in Dadar West and St Xavier’s Ground in Parel—with a combined capacity of 4.5 crore litres. It has also installed seven pumps of 3,000 litres/hour capacity to pump out water from the south-bound road to Pramod Mahajan Park tank.
The water from Pramod Mahajan Park tank dispersed in Worli stormwater drainage whereas water from St Xavier’s ground goes to Britannia pumping station.
The civic body observed that the two pumps installed at St Xavier’s Ground were inadequate during heavy rain and has floated a tender for four more pumps for Rs 15 crore. “Both the tanks were almost full at one point during high tide, but the rain stopped and the flooding situation was averted. The system will work when there is 50 mm rain per hour for three hours or 60 to 70 mm rain per hour for two hours. The augmentation of a tank at Pramod Mahajan Park is on the cards,” said Velrasu.
“These are ongoing projects and there will be an improvement after observing situations with heavy spells. For example, we installed a pipeline to get water from the farthest lane of the opposite road at King’s Circle but some water was accumulated there and we will find a solution for it,” he added.
In the case of Gandhi Market, the BMC did not construct holding tanks but installed a mini pumping station with high capacity pumps to disperse water into Bharat Nagar culvert. The civic body has spent Rs 8 crore for the construction and R12 crore for maintenance for four years.
Traders and shopkeepers from the area praised the BMC for its efforts. Hari Om Shukla, owner of an embroidery shop in the market, said, “I have been here for 45 years but for the first time we didn’t face any waterlogging in the area. Earlier there would be 2 to 2.5-feet high water in our shops.”
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