HC blasts BMC for ignoring 26/7 lessons

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Wednesday reprimanded the BMC for pothole-ridden roads and water-logging in the city.

Hearing a clutch of PILs filed last year on the pathetic condition of roads and the poor drainage system after the 26/7 deluge, judges RM Lodha and SJ Vajifdar said nothing seemed to have changed over the year.

BMC’s counsel KK Singhvi said Rs250 crore had been spent on road repairs before the monsoons. “That money has gone down the drain,” remarked Justice Lodha.

Noting that the quality of repair was “very poor”, the court directed the BMC to survey the roads and asked why contractors who used substandard material should not be punished.

The judges said: “Life should go on as normal. That is the spirit of this city.”

They dismissed the BMC’s contention that the city’s spirit was dampened by the heavy rains. “Heavy rains are not a new phenomenon in a coastal city like Mumbai,” they said.

The court has ordered the BMC to file an affidavit by July 26 on the implementation of the Brihanmumbai Storm Water Drains (Brimstowad) project. The project was conceived in 1993 to overhaul the city’s drainage system to tackle flooding. The court wants the BMC to indicate the time-frame for phase-wise implementation of the project.