Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation sets January 15 target to complete tenders for desilting

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is seemingly attempting to not make the same mistakes as it did last year and the year before that when the delay in desilting work led to waterlogging in many areas in the city during monsoon.

In a bid to be prepared beforehand for the monsoon next year, the civic body has set January 15 as the target to complete tender processes for desilting minor nullahs across the city. The civic chief, Ajoy Mehta has directed assistant commissioners of the all 24 wards to reassess the quantity of silt in their respective areas, and accordingly inform the storm water drain (SWD) department immediately.

The department will then invite tenders — based on the information received from the wards — for desilting both, major and minor nullahs. The department has to finalise tenders by January 15. "The chief engineer of SWD will have to collect all silt data from each ward and expedite the tender process in such a way that the tenders should be finalised by January 15," a senior civic official said.

In the last monsoon, the BMC had appointed nearly 57 contractors for desilting, and had started the work from April 1. However, the delay in appointment led to delay in the work.

In 2016, the SWD department had failed to appoint contractors. It was compelled to seek the help of non-government organisations (NGOs) for the same. On August 29, 2017, Mumbai had come to a standstill due to water-logging during heavy rain.

Mumbai's western suburb accounts for 18 SWD systems, which is the highest. This is followed by the eastern suburb, which has six systems while the island city has three. SWD systems are identified locations where major nullas are connected to small ones and face water-logging.

In the western suburbs, major catchment (water-logged) locations are Andheri east and west, Kherwadi, Bharat Nagar, Jogeshwari, Santacruz and Khar among others. Eastern suburbs have Kurla, Sakinaka, Mulund, Bhandup, and others.

Desilting involves cleaning nullahs ahead of monsoon in order to allow smooth drainage of water, which plays a major role in preventing water-logging during the monsoon.