Mumbai: BMC begins desilting work of low lying areas

Civic workers clean the Nullah before monsoons at 60 feet road, Dharavi. File Pic/Shadab Khan

The BMC will ensure to clear drains in the 50-metre radius of low-lying areas to avoid spot flooding this year. There are around 100 spots across the city which is yet to be tackled. As per BMC's annual target of silt, it has reached almost 100 per cent of nullah cleaning. Despite this success rate, the drain cleaning has always proven to be insufficient during the first heavy spell of the monsoon.

Even though silt is an important visual indicator for drainage cleaning, it is not the ultimate benchmark. "Quantity of silt is one of the indicators but we cannot depend upon it entirely. Even if the required quantity is removed from nullahs and still the stretch is not clear, then the drain will be choked as water flow is disrupted. So we are ensuring to clear the stretch and not depend only on the quantity of silt," said an additional commissioner Abhijeet Bangar. He added in addition to clear the entry points of nullahs/riven into creeks, "We are also stressing to clear all drains, nullahs in the radius of 50 metres around flooding spots. It will make sure that the water from the area will flow uninterruptedly," he added.

As per the survey done by the BMC a few years ago, there were 386 chronic flooding spots detected. The BMC officials said, around 326 flooding spots have been tackled till now. The balance 60 flooding spots are required to be tackled by BMC and other agencies. But at the same time, there are 100 new flooding spots identified out of which work started at 72 spots and are expected to be tackled in phase-wise manner before monsoon 2025. Other 10 flooding spots are in the planning stage and 18 flooding spots falling in government/private properties will be planned in coordination with them.