Mumbai rains: BMC gears up ahead of monsoon in city, citizens to receive periodic messages on weather updates

BMC headquarters. File Pic

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been gearing up for the upcoming monsoon in the city. The city civic body on Tuesday said that the citizens of Mumbai will receive periodic messages on weather updates. The BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal reviewed the preparations in the pre-monsoon-2023 review meeting held on Tuesday with different departments and directed that all the departments should be ready for the challenges such as monsoon flooding in the city.

In an official statement, the BMC said that in the review meeting, Chahal said that due to environmental changes the effects are witnessed in every season, various departments in Mumbai should be prepared to overcome the challenge of flood situations during monsoon. If all the systems of Mumbai, including the BMC responsibly deal with the flooding situations and if all the departments in Mumbai contribute in a proper manner during the rainy season, the crisis that befalls in the city can be avoided with a concerted effort

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It said that in view of the upcoming monsoon season, in order to achieve proper coordination between various departments, a meeting was held along with various officials including senior BMC officials, BEST, Collector of Mumbai Suburban District, Mumbai Traffic Police Joint Commissioner and officials from the Disaster Management Department. At the meeting, the representatives of Central and Western Railways, National Disaster Response Authority, India Meteorological Department, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MHADA), Mumbai Metro, State Government's Public Works Department, and representatives of various power distribution companies were also present.

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The BMC said, it was only because of excellent coordination between the Railways and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation that the suburban local services were running smoothly during last year's monsoon. This was possible only because of micro tunneling and cleaning of culverts within railway limits. Chahal said that there was a need to work in better coordination on the same lines this year as well. He also instructed the Parks Department to complete the tree trimming works in the railways area by the end of May.

The BMC said, the citizens will now get weather information through SMS. The Emergency Management Department has prepared a control room and a weather warning system for this monsoon season. Provision has been made to make funds available in emergency situations at the departmental level. Also, this year, a message system will be made available to the citizens to provide updates from time to time during the rainy season. It is a system that provides weather related updates for a specific area. These SMS alerts will be sent to citizens through an SMS app.

The civic body further said, 480 places in Mumbai will require water pumping pumps - Water pumps will be installed at all these 480 places in the city and suburbs during heavy rains. These pumps will be monitored by CCTV cameras.

In the meeting, Chahal gave instructions to publicly announce the list of those who are responsible for water pump operations. Chahal has also instructed to conduct mock drills to ensure that the pumps will work properly in the event of waterlogging, the BMC said.