Both Western, Central and Harbour have 142 culverts beneath the track, which needs to be cleaned before monsoons.
While the issue of monsoon preparedness always remains the bone of contention between BMC and Railways, the civic body has claimed that Railways have completed 90 per cent of drain cleaning work.
"Both Western, Central and Harbour have 142 culverts beneath the track, which needs to be cleaned before monsoons. Following a joint inspection, we have found that 90 per cent of drains has been cleaned. The rest of the work is going on," said a senior officer from the Storm Water Drain (SWD) Department.
The civic body pays the Railways for carrying out drain cleaning work on the railway premises. However, given the fact that cleaning of nullahs is one of the most important tasks for BMC and Railways, both end up blaming each other for flooding near tracks every year.
However, BMC officials said that the first few showers are the litmus tests to show if the cleaning work by railways has been done properly. "In case it floods near the drains during first few showers, we alert them and they carry out cleaning work," said an SWD official.
While civic officials said that this year they are satisfied with the cleaning work, it is the surging cost of construction and improvement of drains that is a bother. Since BMC cannot carry out construction in railway premises, they pay Railways for the construction work.
"We had asked WR to construct drains at Bandra and Malad to improve the flow of rainwater and on an average, the cost for such work is around Rs 3 crores. But the WR has levied 'Way Leave' charges, which is almost double than the construction cost (around Rs 6 crores). The total cost goes up to Rs 11 crores after including other charges," said a civic source adding that 'way leave' charges are charged by Railways to allow the use of its land for activities that include laying underground pipelines for water supply and even sewerage.
Meanwhile, another bone of contention, which remains unsolved is the question related to the garbage thrown on the railway tracks by slums that are on BMC land. There is a major issue at Harbour line – Kurla, Sandhurst Road, King's Circle, Mahim along with Masjid station. However, BMC refuses to intervene in the Railway property stating that it can only create awareness drives at slums along railway lines and provide more dustbins and charge fine from defaulters.
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