Monsoon clean up in final stage: BMC Commissioner

Mumbai, June 1 (UNI) Ruling out the repetition of July 26, 2005, when many parts of the city were submerged for couple of days due to heavy downpour, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Jairaj Phatak today said the Corporation is well prepared for the monsoon.

''The desilting work undertaken by the BMC is almost complete and we are prepared for the monsoon,'' he said while addressing a news conference here.

Mr Phatak said the pre-monsoon work undertaken by the BMC is complete and action is being taken on the slums that have been built on the pipelines.

He said since the monsoon is an acid test for any commissioner, one cannot predict the future but the civic body is in a much-better situation this year to tackle the monsoon.

The BMC has taken the help of 600 jawans from the Home Guard and the Civil Defence will be posted in 14 sensitive wards from June 15.

Each ward will be provided with 2 gen-sets with a capacity of 2.2 KVA, to ensure uninterrupted power supply for the rescue operations.

The Indian Navy's Flood Rescue Team will be used by the BMC in case of an emergency, he said.

Additional Municipal Commissioner (AMC) Shrikant Singh said ''The effects of monsoon are at times area specific, and the BMC is prepared to tackle the monsoon and even to face a 26/7 like situation.'' He said the main transport link of the city will not be disturbed in this monsoon.

The BMC has also undertaken a hawker eviction and encroachment drive in various wards of the city following the High Court orders on shifting the hawkers from the non-hawking zones to the hawking ones.

Additional Municipal Commissioner R A Rajiv said ''The road side food stalls will be removed in South Mumbai and all the stalls, except the Aarey Sarita, handicapped booths and the cobbler stalls, will be shifted to the hawking zone.'' He added that the plots remaining in the hawking zone will be given to hawkers through lottery system.

UNI