BMC to clean up beaches after Bombay high court rap

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to spend Rs12.60 crore for cleaning up beaches. This move comes after the Bombay high court pulled up the civic body over the issue last week.

The Maha-Goolistan Co-operative Housing Society, Mahalaxmi had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) for cleaning the beach zone between Mahalaxmi and Warden Road in South Mumbai.
After the court directive, the civic body decided to clean all beaches and sea faces in the city.

In first phase the BMC is going to award the contracts of three beaches - Dadar-Mahim, Versova and Juhu. The contract will be awarded to three different contractors for the next seven years.

According to the BMC’s proposal, it is going to spend Rs17, 861 every day on cleaning the Dadar-Mahim beach, while Rs15,656 and Rs7,710 will be spent every day for Juhu and Versova beaches.

“The rates quoted by the contractors is a lot less than the BMC’s estimated cost and the standing committee did not approve the proposal,” said a civic official.

Rahul Shewale, standing committee chairman accepted that the rates are low. “We are seeking clarifications from the administration about the low cost of the beach clean-up. After the clarification from civic administration, we will pass it,” said Shewale.

“The BMC is also going to appoint clean up marshals or nuisance detectors on sea faces to prevent people from dumping garbage in the sea,” he informed.

“The stretch between Nariman Point and Haji Ali- Worli-Prabhadevi will be cleaned by a private agency in the second phase,” informed the civic official.

The PIL was filed by Maha Goolistan Co-operative Housing Society in 2008 pointed out the beach zone between Mahalaxmi and Warden Road and the sea belt particularly around the Mahalaxmi temple had virtually turned into a dumping ground.