Mumbai: Breaking the age-old ritual of delayed beginning of the annual pre-monsoon desilting work, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has preponed the exercise this year. The desilting operations commenced from 15, April instead of May, to ensure that the work is completed before 5, June. The MBMC has appointed Ashapura Construction Company for manual and mechanical excavation with JCB’s, Boat-Poclain’s and Hydraulic Earth Moving Machines for the desilting work across the six zonal divisions demarcated in the twin-city. This apart from roping in local contractors for the provision of suction pumps to de-water chronic flooding spots.
The desilting project is pegged at Rs.3.75 crore
The desilting project is pegged at Rs.3.75 crore. It has been alleged that ample scope has been provided for the contractors to manipulate loopholes in the clock-based pricing structure, exploitation of workers by denying minimum wages and safety gears to continue with their routine money minting exercise. However, the civic administration claims to have taken adequate steps to keep a check on the work to prevent any type of manipulations in the hiring process which envisages removal of silt, muck and sediments which gets deposited on the beds of nullahs and creeks which slow down the force of water flowing through the water bodies which in turn leads to water-logging owing to overflow.
Civic chief- Sanjay Katkar's statement
“While real time video shooting and geo-tagged photographs of on-duty labour and in-action machines have been made as mandatory components to be submitted with the bills along with manual logbook records, our teams will supervise the work at ward level. ” said civic chief- Sanjay Katkar. The MBMC has also mandated submission of before and after photos of the desilting process. There are around 155 major and minor nullahs in the twin-city which measure up to more than 240 km’s. For weeding out dead mangrove shrubs in creeks which create obstacles, the MBMC will have to adopt a manual mechanism following an approval from the forest ranger attached to the mangrove cell.
