Mumbai monsoon: BMC responsible for people's woes

Heavy rainfall on Thursday paralysed the country's financial capital, belying the Shiv Sena-BJP-led BMC's claim that the city is ready for the rains.

Severe water logging due to incessant rains that continued to lash the city for second consecutive day caused major traffic jams, waterlogged roads, clogged drains and also disrupted the suburban train services. Water logging cases were registered in low lying areas like Dadar, Parel, Sion, Kurla, Ghatkopar and the Western Express Highway.

As per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Colaba received 101.0 mm and Santa Cruz received 47.8 mm rainfall in the 24 hours on Friday. Yet again, the BMC's shoddy work has been exposed by just a single day of rainfall and reports of water-logging in nook and corner of the city.

According to BMC's disaster control room, it has received several complaints on water-logging and trees collapsing, from across the city. This is not the first time that Mumaikars are facing such problems due to lapse on civic body's part but flooding of roads and railway tracks is common in every monsoon.

BMC making a parody of itself:

Each time BMC make tall claims of making monsoon period hassle-free for citizens but failed to fulfill its promises. This year too, the civic authority is racing against time to complete the renovation work on different roads. The civic authority started usual monsoon routing like de-silting Mithi river but months have passed most work still unfinished. So far, according to reports, 1,500 potholes have been registered on the website since June, of which about 1,000 were recorded in the last month. Out of these, 100 potholes alone have been registered in the T ward, which includes Mulund. The other wards with over 90 pothole complaints include the K-West ward, S ward and L ward, which cover the areas of Andheri, Juhu and Vile Parle west, Bhandup and Kurla respectively. This year, BMC spent Rs 48 crore for pre-monsoon road repair works.

No preparation despite puming-in huge amount:

As per the reports, BMC has allocated Rs 1,400 crore for road construction and Rs 60 crore will be spent in each municipal zone for pothole repair. In February, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has also set aside Rs 7,774 crore for the next three years to ensure that Mumbaikars drive across smooth, pothole-free roads in the coming future.

1,500 potholes have been registered on BMC's website since June.

In May, the civic authority told Bombay High Court that tenders and work orders for preventive maintenance work have been issued for Rs six crore for major roads and Rs two crore for minor and arterial roads. 156 locations in western suburbs, 63 in eastern suburbs and 179 locations in the city have been identified for pre-monsoon repair. The work has started and will be completed by May 20.

Lesson not learnt from 2005 floods:

The BMC might not have taken lesson from 2005 Maharashtra floods in which at least 5,000 people lost their lives. The floods were caused by the eighth heaviest ever recorded 24-hour rainfall figure of 994 mm (39.1 inches) which lashed the city on 26 July 2005, and continued for the next day. 644 mm (25.4 inches) was received within the 12-hour period. At that time, BMC's sloppy monsoon-preparedness was also criticised.

Mumbaikars took to twitter to express their frustration:

Human, animal crap, mud and gods only know what else mixed with gushing water. Mumbai rains are romantic baby! pic.twitter.com/KrHmlALUNb

— rupa subramanya (@rupasubramanya) July 7, 2014

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that the city is likely to continue receiving heavy rainfall over the next two days. Mumbai for the long time is vulnerable to flooding as ever but given the way BMC work ahead with the Monsoon preparedness, this was a predictable outcome.