With just a month left before monsoon arrives in the city, the obvious and inevitable question remains: is Mumbai rain-ready? A report in this paper cited how the BMC is struggling to complete de-silting work, especially in the underground drains. Last year, the civic body had bought a robot at a cost of around R6 crore, to remove the silt from stretches of underground nullahs that had not been cleaned in decades.

Yet, civic officials from the Storm Water Drains (SWD) department said that the robots (a device with a suction attachment, which is controlled with a remote) were unable to do the job and they are now trying to find equipment with a higher capacity.