Officials from the stormwater drain department said clogging of these minor and roadside drains and a lack of awareness about them were major reasons that led to Friday's deluge.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's plan of getting a survey of all its minor and roadside drains done has progressed little since it was conceived last year. The final plan of the delayed project, which has seen numerous cost variations, is yet to be tabled before the civic standing committee for approval.
Officials from the stormwater drain department said clogging of these minor and roadside drains and a lack of awareness about them were major reasons that led to Friday's deluge. dna was the first to report about the plan.
Civic sources said an agency has already been finalised for the project and it is likely to cost the BMC Rs13 crore.
The survey will help the 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 up to hundreds of kilometres.
The data will be uploaded on a software which could be monitored on a real-time basis by civic officials. There are approximately 200 minor drains, which run up to 430km, and roadside drains running up to 2,000km.
The project was first supposed to be carried out at a cost of Rs11 lakh. It then escalated to Rs64lakh and the same agency who carried out the survey of the major drains was to carry out this one. However, the proposal was turned down by the civic standing committee, following which it was redesigned and a different agency was appointed for the work.
"The proposal will soon be presented to the standing committee again. Once their approval comes, we can start the work. The survey will help us to carry our further work. Also, there will be less chances of damaging utilities while cleaning of such drains," Laxman Vhatkar, director of engineering services at the BMC said, adding that five teams will be assigned for the job.
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