Mumbai: At Rs 226 cr, BMC ups budget for nullah cleaning, but is it worth it?

The second phase of the Mithi River Rejuvenation Project is facing a hurdle due to encroachments. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

The BMC has set aside Rs 226 crore for nullah cleaning this year, which includes Rs 46 crore only for the Mithi river. There are 309 major drains and four rivers with an approximate length of 290 km. The city has 508 small nullahs that are 605 km long. Last year, around 4.63 lakh tonnes of silt was removed from nullahs, at the cost of Rs 162 crore.

This year, the BMC in its budget of 2023-24 set aside R90 crore for major nullahs and Rs 90 crore for minor nullahs. Apart from nullahs and rivers, there are around 2,004 km roadside gutters of which work is given at wards/zone levels. The corporation has already floated a tender of Rs 87 crore for the period of two years, with a target of silt removal of 2.70 lakh tonnes per year, 70 per cent before monsoon, 20 per cent during rains and 10 per cent later.

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While 75 per cent of nullah-cleaning is done before monsoon, 10 per cent happens during the monsoon and 15 per cent post monsoon. Pre-monsoon desilting of gutters, nullahs and rivers begins in April. Godfrey Pimenta, an activist, said that spending crores of money every year on desilting is no solution to the problem. "The BMC must appoint experts to solve the issue. A wire mesh over the nullahs may solve the issues of throwing garbage in nullahs. It may be a one-time capital expenditure. There are other solutions as well, but the corporation doesn't want a permanent solution," he said.

Rs 46 cr
Amount of money reserved for cleaning Mithi river