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Day after Uddhav Thackeray's inspection, BMC claims city is rain-ready

Chronic flooding spots in the city have been reduced to 40 compared to last year's 66. However, the city still has three major chronic flooding spots for which the civic body has no solution.

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A nullah in Mankhurd that hasn’t been cleaned as yet
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A day after Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray expressed his apprehension over the desilting of drains and that Mumbai may flood, a defensive Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has made tall claims that it is rain-ready and the desilting work done is satisfactory.

Chronic flooding spots in the city have been reduced to 40 compared to last year's 66. However, the city still has three major chronic flooding spots for which the civic body has no solution.

Additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh said the city is shaped like a saucer. There are at least 44 outfalls which are below mean sea level and 124 below high-tide levels. This makes all these spots vulnerable if it rains heavily. The municipal commissioner has claimed that this time the civic stormwater drains department has worked hard and ensured that the drains are cleaned properly and silt is deposited at the nine designated spots.

Until now, the BMC has cleaned major nullahs up to 66.23%, minor (done at ward level) up to 35%, while Mithi and Vakola rivers are up to 76.02% clean.

"At present, the civic administration can handle 50mm rain in one hour as the water accumulated on road will start receding after 15 to 30 minutes. We are trying to reduce this time by keeping portable pumps," said Deshmukh. The BMC has made a provision of 293 pumps for 214 locations across the city. The chronic flooding spots will have more pumps on stand-by.

However, if the same amount of rain coincides with high tide, which would be more than four meters, then the civic administration can't do anything to stop the roads from getting flooded, said Deshmukh, adding that this happened on June 18 last year.

Parel (Hindmata Cinema), Nair hospital gate in Mumbai Central and road number 24 in Sion are the three major chronic spots that get flooded with the slightest of heavy rain. "Though this year we have tried our level best to provide short-term measures, we do have long-term measures planned for these areas," said Deshmukh.

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