Mumbai Rains: 12 years on, little has changed

Tuesday's rainfall was just one-third of what the city received on July 26, 2005, the flooding spots, reasons for flooding and Brinhanmumbai Municipal Corporation's ill-preparedness were the same.

In 12 years, the city's drainage system's capacity to flush rainwater has only marginally gone up from 25 mm rainfall per hour to 50 mm. It means, if the city receives rainfall more than 50 mm in an hour, it will flood again.

Meanwhile, Civic chief Ajoy Mehta on Wednesday gave BMC officials a pat on the back. He said, "The lesson that we learned from July 2005 deluge helped us to bring back the city to normal in record time." Mehta, however, was silent if it receives more than 50mm of rainfall in an hour.

After the July 2005 deluge, the civic body had planned to set up eight high-capacity pumping station across the city to flush out excess water during heavy rainfall under the Brihanmumbai Stormwater Disposal System (BRIMSTOWAD). However, in all these years, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has managed to start only six pumping stations. The other two were reportedly stuck due to land issues. The civic body has spent around Rs 450 crore in these plants so far.

The civic body also seemed to have forgotten about Mithi river, that exacerbated the 2005 flood disaster. Neither the proposed widening nor the retaining wall along the river has been done though the BMC also received Rs 1,200 crore from the Central government for Mithi river rejuvenation. On Tuesday, the river again overflowed.

MMRC UNDER FIRE

• Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray indirectly slammed MMRC for water logging in BKC and adjoining areas. He alleged that the debris from the Metro work blocked the BMC drainage, leading to water logging
   
• MMRC, however, denied these allegations. "Necessary precautions were taken as per the advice from the BMC. Additional measures will be implemented if required," it said.