Metro III work floods south Mumbai once again

The cover of a drain was left open to let in the water at Mahalaxmi Road in South Mumbai on Sunday. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Just a week after south Mumbai's plush Fort area was declared a World Heritage Site, some of it went under water again, literally. The ongoing construction for Metro III, the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz line, has become the reason for flooding in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) A ward. Several areas in the ward which never had waterlogging before, saw water accumulated all around.

BMC wrote to contractors
Last week, in a letter to the contractors carrying out Metro III work, BMC officials had instructed them to provide necessary numbers of dewatering pumps at Hutatma Chowk, Vidhan Bhavan and Cuffe Parade metro stations. The civic body had feared waterlogging due to water being discharged through the existing drainage network without permissions.

The BMC's letter said that there should be 10 dewatering pumps at Hutatma Chowk but only 6 were provided. Waterlogging was noticed here on Sunday morning. There were also complaints about slurry being discharged in the Storm Water Drains (SWD) obstructing the flow of water. The letter also said contractors were to inform BMC the exact number of dewatering pumps they would install and give detailed sketches of where the slurry will be discharged and details of the discharge mechanism.

However, the authorities had a different take on the situation. Ajoy Mehta, municipal commissioner, said, "We are not denying that there was waterlogging, but it also receded very fast and thus traffic was not at all affected. We have given them some instructions in the past to ensure that these problems don't occur, which they are adhering to. There is constant communication between both the agencies."

But BMC sources said again a joint inspection will be held with Metro officials. A civic official said, "We have never seen waterlogging in South Mumbai before, and it might have happened as observations pointed to contractors were not completely looked at. We will again hold a joint inspection and ensure people are not inconvenienced due to waterlogging."

MMRC says
"There is no waterlogging observed in south Mumbai due to Metro III work. MMRC being a responsible organisation, is implementing a monsoon preparedness plan in all the packages, and all necessary precautions are being taken care by us," said a spokesperson of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC).

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