Flooding in the city during monsoons bring unending woes to the citizens. Yet the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) seems to be taking its own sweet time in addressing one of the reason's leading to flooding.
For the past few months, the BMC's storm water drain department has been awaiting the standing committee's nod to start a comprehensive survey it had planned for the minor drains across the city. Currently, the civic body has just got a rough idea of all the small drains, which may contribute to major flooding if they are not properly attended to. In fact, some of them have almost turned into dump yards and therefore go unnoticed by BMC authorities.
Why the delay?
"The initial cost of the survey was estimated at Rs40 lakh. Later, some additional details were included into the survey because of which the cost shot up to Rs 64 lakh. The cost of such surveys is usually subject to changes. It is important that they are cleared soon so that the work can be started. We have to show a presentation to the committee before they approve it," said a senior civic official.
Standing Committee chairman Yashodhar Phanase stayed unavailable for comments.
Which firm will conduct the survey?
"An agency, MWH Private Limited, has already been roped in for the survey, but the standing committee is yet to approve the variation in the cost," the official said.
The same firm had carried out a similar survey on all the major and broad drains across the city, a couple of months ago.
How will the survey help?
The survey will help BMC get detailed information about the length, width and the capacity of every minor drain. It will also include GIS mapping of the utilities lying beneath the drains if any. Some of them may be placed beneath roadside drains, running upto hundreds of kilometres.
What is the present scene?
Currently, there are 416 major drains that run up to 320 kilometres.
Previous records show there are approximately 200 minor drains, running across a length of 320 km. "The survey will help us to carry our further work. Also there will be less chances of damaging utilities while cleaning of such drains," another civic official said.
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