BMC, Rlys continue blame game

Ajoy Mehta, Commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said on Thursday that he is satisfied with the de-silting being carried out between CST and Mankhurd by the Central Railway (CR) along the Harbour Line. Reality, however, has a different story to tell — forget satisfactory, many places still reel under crisis as de-silting in those areas remain to start.

Mehta along with DK Sharma, General Manager, CR, went on a joint inspection of the de-silting work between CST to Mankhurd. Surprisingly, even as the inspection was on, trains passed through piles of garbage lining the drains at several locations. CR officials told BMC that most of the garbage came from the slums lining the railway tracks, which come under BMC jurisdiction.

The stretches between CST and Mankhurd fall in three different wards of BMC and the railway track in these areas are surrounded by slums. While the civic body has coughed up Rs 2.79 crore for de-silting of the nullahs along the rail tracks, railway officials claim that continuous dumping of waste by slum dwellers has made their work difficult.

A senior CR official said that even as they were inspecting the drains around Govandi area, the team saw people from slums throwing garbage over the wall. “We have been asking BMC to improve the waste management across these slums. The Municipal Commissioner asked BMC officials to look into the issue and start fining people for throwing garbage,” said the official.

During inspection, BMC was informed that the drains and culverts will be cleaned manually, and trees along the area will be trimmed too.

Another railway official said that plastic comprised a major part of this garbage, which was choking the drains at several locations. “We had even fenced the area and sent Railway Protection Force (PRF) staff inside the slums to warn them against throwing garbage, but they claimed that they had no other option. While BMC officials keep claiming that they pay us for cleaning these drains, it is also their duty to manage the waste that is generated,” he said.

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Majority of Mumbaikars travel to work and back home on suburban trains. Choked nullahs could lead to water logging on the tracks, which can throw local services out of gear. The civic body is already behind schedule on monsoon preparation as mandatory road surfacing works and de-silting are going on at slow pace. If railway services are also disrupted due to water logging, it will cause massive commute issues.