Mumbai: Stranded in their own homes

Despite a proposal to widen the drain, BMC does nothing for over a year; now, residents of 14th Road in Bandra West suffer from frequent waterlogging even when it barely rains

For a year, despite an approval, the civic body neither repaired the road nor widened the drain on 14th Road in Bandra West, leaving mostly elderly occupants of old buildings to deal with waterlogged once again. Residents claimed that silt from a nearby construction site clogs the drain, bringing dirty water inside the premises on the ground floor.

Rosy D'Monte, a resident of Church View located on 14th Road in Bandra West, said, “Since the past year, we are facing waterlogging problems on the road as well as in our society premises. We have complained to the BMC time and again, yet there has been no permanent solution.

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“They clean the drain on receiving the complaint, but as soon as it rains, even mildly, we are left with the waterlogging problem. We had requested the civic body to widen the drain, but officials said that it will happen only after the monsoon, when they will repair the road. Old buildings around us suffer the most from this issue,” D'Monte added.

Rainwater gets accumulated at the main gate and even enters the ground floor, say residents

Juanita Rodricks, another resident, said, “We have been dealing with this issue since last year. There are differently abled and senior citizens in the buildings, and they cannot go out whenever the area gets waterlogged. Sometimes, even we, the able people, cannot go out to visit a doctor or for any emergency work.”
Former corporator Swapna Mahtre admitted that the problem has been there since last year. “After redevelopment, the level of the ground floor of new buildings rises. However, the old buildings are at the road level, because of which rainwater accumulates there,” Mhatre said.

“We are trying to solve this issue. The BMC has cleaned the drain three times in the past 15 days using a jetting machine. However, if this won’t work any more, we are planning to set up a temporary dewatering pump to drain the rainwater quickly,” Mhatre said.

Mhatre said the “proposal to widen the drain, thus increasing its capacity, was approved last year during the budget. However, it was later decided to repair the road,” Mhatre said.

Both the road repair and drain widening works will be carried out together. However, now, the work can start only when the rainy season ends.

Assistant Municipal Commissioner of H West ward Vinayak Vispute did not respond to mid-day’s request for comment.

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