Mumbai: The BMC has began its the most crucial works before the monsoon hits the city- the desilting storm water drains to allow rainwater to drain faster and prevent flooding as much as possible. One major storm water drain in Mumbai is the controversial Mithi river, which passes from eastern to western suburbs.
To ensure the transperancy in desilting of 17 km long Mithi river, additional municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar has directed to install CCTVs at all weighbridges and keep accurate data of silt dredging. He has also directed the BMC staff to be present on site to ensure timely and quality work.
The Mithi River has always been in the news, first for been major source of flooding in Mumbai due to improper desilting and later due to a 'desilting scam', leading to police investigations.
The Mumbai Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW) recently questioned 10 contractors and asked the BMC to provide CCTV footage uploaded on the civic portal of the debris removed as part of the Rs 1,100 crore Mithi River 'desilting scam' probe.
The EOW’s investigation includes contracts awarded for desilting and beautification of the river, the terms and conditions of these agreements, verification of actual debris removal whether it was weighed, videographed, or photographed and examination of records from the authorities.
Bangar who visited several major drains in eastern suburbs on Thursday, ordered that work of Mithi river should be completed within next 51 days (May 31) and engineers must be present at the site to ensure quality and timely work. He inspected the work on Bandra-Kurla complex strech near Dhirubhai Ambani School and MMRDA office.
Bangar said that the objective should not be cleaning the debris and desilting drains but prevention from flooding.
The major storm water drains Bangar visited includes Somaiya Nullah, where 1.2 meters box drain is proposed near Jolly junction to allow speed drainage of rainwater. Also a 1.2 meters box is proposed near Meghraj junction. Bangar ordered to speedy administrative clearance for this work and completion of box drains before monsoon.
Bangar also visited Mahul Khadi Nullah on Sewri-Chembur Road and ordered cleaning of the culvert through robotic plants. This will give relief to areas like Tilak Nagar, Nehru Nagar, Rahul Nagar, Kamgar Nagar etc, which face water logging every monsoon.
